The Next Cullen
by padfoot's prose
Summary: 14 years after Breaking Dawn, the Cullens - plus Jason, their newest addition - move to Ocean Shores. The last thing they expect to find there is a werewolf. And the last thing Jason expects is to fall for her. ABANDONED!
1. Prologue

**Okay, meet my newest attempt at a good Twilight fic. The only problem with this is that it's OC/OC, but I can promise a lot of Bella/Edward, Alice/Jasper, Jacob/Renesmee and all the other main couples. Please give it a bit of a chance to engage you - the effort that I've put into it and the time spent reading it over and over with my faithful 'editor' (/beta) are at least worth that much.**

**_For Annie._**

* * *

**Jason**

_Maybe it's intuition  
But some things you just don't question  
Like in your eyes, I see my future in an instant  
And there it goes,  
I think I found my best friend  
I know that it might sound  
More than a little crazy  
But I believe..._

_I knew I loved you before I met you  
I think I dreamed you into life  
I knew I loved you before I met you  
I have been waiting all my life_

_There's just no rhyme or reason  
Only the sense of completion  
And in your eyes, I see  
The missing pieces I'm searching for  
I think I've found my way home  
I know that it might sound  
More than a little crazy  
But I believe..._

_I knew I loved you before I met you  
I think I dreamed you into life  
I knew I loved you before I met you  
I have been waiting all my life_

_A thousand angels dance around you  
I am complete now that I've found you_

_I knew I loved you before I met you  
I think I dreamed you into life  
I knew I loved you before I met you  
I have been waiting all my life_

_I knew I loved you before I met you  
I think I dreamed you into life  
I knew I loved you before I met you  
I have been waiting all my life_

-- I Knew I Loved You, Savage Garden

**Layla**

_Dark, auburn hair, ruffled casually. Deep, toffee-coloured eyes, cautious and unsure. Perfect features arranged on flawless, snow-white skin…  
__I fell into an uncomfortable sleep with Jason Cullen on my mind._

**Curious?**

* * *


	2. What's Left Of Me

**Thank you for the reviews for the prologue, and I hope that this doesn't disappoint.**

**Disclaimer: The Twilight series definitely doesn't belong to me, although I really wish it did.**

_I've been dying inside  
__Little by little  
Nowhere to go, going out of my mind  
In endless circles  
Running from myself until  
You gave me a reason for standing still_

_--Nick Lachey, What's Left Of Me_

**Jason**

Eight of us sat at the table. Around us, the normal babble of a typical high-school cafeteria echoed through the large room. Groups of ten or more squashed themselves onto too-small benches, and their trays of food onto too-small tables. Our table sat in the corner furthest from the entrance, but my eyes could still see easily the fifty or so metres to the pair of swinging doors that people were pushing and shoving each other through. I think they were just pushing and shoving for the sake of it though; the piles of badly disguised mush can't have been very appetising. Not that I could really know. Nothing they served at this cafeteria seemed very appetising to me. The _people_ being served however…

"Jason." Edward's tone was sharp, cutting through my thoughts.

A scowl slipped onto my face. What right did he have to be butting into my mind? It wasn't like I was going to hurt anyone.

He chuckled under his breath in response to that.

"Why don't you go play with Bella?" I suggested, forcing myself to keep my tone light. It'd be rude if I ordered him away.

He sighed as if he'd like nothing better than to do as I was suggesting. "Because I need to baby-sit."

Emmett sniggered, and I could feel one of his usual jabs at my 'age' coming on.

"Why me and not her?" I jerked my head towards Renesmee; too busy playing footsies under the table with Jacob to notice the conversation.

"She's been doing this for much longer than you have."

"Only four years."

"Four and a _half_ years."

We all turned to look at Nessie, who'd halted her fun to slide that comment in.

"And you'll never let me forget it," I mumbled, annoyed. Usually if Edward didn't side with me, then at least his daughter would.

"Never." He chocolate eyes glinted mischievously.

I looked away. "Because half a year makes _all_ the difference," I muttered quietly, but loud enough to be sure that everyone at our table could hear it. Jacob laughed, but it might've been at something Nessie had done as opposed to at my comment.

Stupid werewolf.

Edward chuckled again, and shot me a smile.

There was silence at our table for a few minutes as Alice and Edward sustained their own 'internal' conversation through their minds, the latter nodding or shrugging every so often. Nessie and Jacob continued with their game. Jasper, Emmett, Rose and I sat in silence, our eyes straying from the slowly progressing line of people getting their food to the new people still coming in through the double doors.

A bell rang shrilly, signalling that lunch was half-over. Like a wave coming into a beach, virtually everyone in the packed cafeteria stood, the bell reminding them of unfinished homework or meetings they had to attend. To my surprise, Edward stood too.

"Bella's class should have finished by now," was his explanation.

We all nodded. A moment later we realised that it had been too synchronised and controlled. Rose switched her crossed legs, Nessie fiddled with a food-wrapper on her tray, Jasper moved to cross his arms on the table, Emmett pretended to scratch his neck, Alice let her gaze crawl away from Edward and rest on something behind me. Jake yawned widely, but I wasn't sure if that was his cover-up or because he was actually tired. I took a second longer than the others to react and make some sort of 'human; action. It still wasn't quite automatic for me.

"Don't let him do anything stupid," Edward warned, nodding at me. He silently ignored all our little acts.

Alice closed her eyes for a second. "He won't."

"Urgh." I hated being baby-sat all the time. It wasn't like my self-control had ever faltered before.

"Don't worry Jason," Emmett had his talking-to-babies voice on. "We'll make sure you behave yourself. We wouldn't want you to have any little accidents, would we?"

A growl slipped through my lips. "I can hurt you now or later – which would you prefer?" My tone was threatening.

Rose pursed her lips in distaste. Everyone at this table knew that my threats were empty. The strength of being a newborn had worn off long ago and, as nicely as I had taken to becoming a vampire, I wasn't nearly as strong as Emmett. Still, I could goad him all I wanted while we were around humans.

Edward rolled his eyes, shot me one last cautioning look, and left. He and Bella would be busy for the rest of lunch. Nessie must have been thinking the same thing as me because she shuddered at her father's departing strides.

"Hit a home run!" Emmett yelled across the cafeteria, just as Edward slipped out the doors. Maybe everyone who'd heard would think he was referring to a softball game. But maybe they wouldn't.

He offered me a high-five. I was still annoyed about the baby-sitting jokes, so ignored it. Rose smirked.

There was silence for a while as we all faded back into our own little worlds. I forced myself not to think of what Edward and Bella would be doing right now. Luckily, I was driving my own car home. And it was parked well away from Edward's Volvo.

Emmett broke the long silence. "So Jase, have you found a date for the dance yet?" I should've known he'd start on that. If he wasn't teasing me about needing baby-sitters, or teasing Renesmee about what she and Jake did (because we could all hear that), or teasing _Jake_ about what he and Nessie did, or teasing anyone else about any other thing for that matter, then he was making fun of the fact that I was the only single member of our family. Great.

I put as much acid into my answer as was possible. "No."

He smirked. "You'd better hurry, or all the good girls will be taken."

Rosalie was sitting next to me, with Emmet on her other side. "Can you slap him for me?" I asked her. She obliged gladly, but didn't hit him very hard. I guess she wanted to keep with the human charade.

"Why not? It's not as if there aren't enough girls who'd go with you." Jake's eyes flicked to the nearest table where a group of aforementioned girls were trying to be subtle about eyeing us up. I groaned. I wasn't about to go with some girl who I hardly knew. Not when all the rest of my family were going with their soul mates.

Still… I looked at the group of girls hard. It'd be so easy to just ask one of them. There was no doubt that they'd say yes. No human could resist the tempting pull of vampire. Then all the teasing would stop. And, who knows, maybe I'd really like whomever I went with. Maybe… I couldn't even convince myself in my head. At least for me, life never worked out that well.

Angrily I stood, pushing myself up with a bit too much energy. The table bent where my hands had been. Rose carefully bent it back into shape, and then looked at me pointedly. I had to keep control. Now all of my family's eyes were on me. They knew that the thirst got worse with anger. The baby-sitting mightn't have been a bad idea.

Alice stood too, intending to lead me away from the people so I could calm down. Jasper made to follow her.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," I assured them. I _was_ fine. I _could_ control this. I wouldn't let something stupid like this make me…

One of the girls looked at me. I could feel her gaze on my back. I turned and met it. She blushed. Warm, lovely blood gushing into her cheeks. I could smell it. Unwillingly, I took half a step towards her.

"Jason." Jasper's voice was close to me, and I felt him grab my shoulder. To the girl it might've seemed like his hand was only just touching me, but his grip was restraining. It warned me not to move. I forced myself to stand still. I also cut off my breathing. That made it a little easier.

"Come on Jase," he said, turning me away from the girl and pushing me towards the cafeteria doors. I felt a second hand, and then Alice appeared at my side, her hand pushing the small of my back. I didn't breath again until I was outside.

A thin shower of rain was falling, as per usual, so not many people were out and those who were weren't staying around to chat. I breathed in deeply, filling my lungs with the smell of it. Fresh, clean. There was no temptation in the smell of rain.

"Sorry," I muttered, once my breathing was back in check. Alice and Jasper had moved further away from me now that I was back under control. "And thanks, I really thought I was okay until-" I broke off. They knew what I meant, and pointless rambling never got anyone anywhere.

"Don't worry about it," Jasper said. Out of all of my family, he was the most sympathetic to me. He still knew what it was like to feel that almost irresistible pull. Sometimes he suffered just as much as I did. Just not as often. "Are you okay now?"

I nodded. Temptation was like that. It could suddenly spring at you like that, appear out of nowhere, and then disappear just as quickly. But I guess that's why I had to be baby-sat. I shot Alice a half-smile. "Why didn't you see that one coming?"

"I did," she admitted lightly. "But I knew we'd get you out of it."

"Oh. Well, thanks," I repeated.

Alice looked up at Jasper, whose gaze was fixed on the car park. He wanted to leave. He hadn't been hunting for a while, and from his dark eyes it was obvious that he would be having trouble resisting for much longer. Him and Alice had planned to go this afternoon anyway. "You guys go," I suggested. "It won't do any harm to miss the last two periods of school."

They both nodded automatically, and turned to go. Still walking towards the car park, Alice looked back at me, "be careful!" I nodded once and watched them disappear behind a large, white van. It was lucky that they wouldn't need a car. The rest of us needed mine to get everyone home and Edward's was, well… occupied. Running would be just as fast though, and the roads were empty at this time of day anyway. I almost wished I'd gone with them.

The bell rang again, and people poured out the buildings, heading for their lockers. I gritted my teeth. Now I'd have to make it all the way to my next class without a baby-sitter. Here was my chance to prove myself. Taking a deep breath of fresh air and holding it, I carefully merged myself into the crowds of people heading for my building.

The crowd carried me into the hallway where my locker was. I managed to extract myself in the right place, and then get pulled back into the never-ending current of people once I'd gotten my books. It required a bit of effort to get myself out of the crowd again as I branched off down a less busy hallway through the area of the school where music rooms were. It might take longer if I went this way, but at least there were less people. Or so I thought.

The smell hit me so hard that I reeled back, utterly shocked at the feeling pulsing through my body. At the other end of the hallway a girl quickly entered one of the music rooms, shutting the door behind her. If not for the gust of breeze that had blown her scent to me, I mightn't even have noticed her. But I had noticed her. I _so _had.

Because the girl was _her_. Jacob's Renesmee, Alice's Jasper, Emmett's Rosalie, Carlisle's Esme, Edward's Bella.My imprint. Or whatever it is a vampire has. I don't know how I knew it, I just did. It was different from what Edward had said it was like: gentle, tugging at your side for a long time before you actually noticed it for what it was. Subtle even. Manageable.

This, however, wasn't. Just as it had always been harder for Edward because of his lust for Bella's blood, the same difficulty now faced me. Except that the scent of the girl's _blood_ didn't even register in my head. Or, if it did, it was somewhere deep in the chasms of my mind. Not somewhere that I was paying much attention to.

So, as I was saying, it wasn't her blood that tempted me – as much as it should've – it was _her_. Her _smell_. And, I promise, the smell definitely wasn't human.

Staggering from shock, and at the same time reaching desperately into the corners of my mind for some sort of protection, some sort of relief from this burning desire that would stop me jumping the poor girl right here and now, I turned away.

I'd always been a good actor. From the very beginning, way before my life had been so effectively destroyed by an endless series of terrible events, I'd been a good actor. But, even my perfect, flawless skills were tested as I fought to keep my expression blank and take slow, measured steps down the hallway. Away from _her._

I was only just able to keep it together until I got outside. The now heavy rain helped to calm me, but only slightly. Checking carefully with my superior senses that no one was close enough to see me, I ran to my car. And boy do I mean ran. If Edward had been there, I might've beaten him. Might've. But he wasn't so I didn't.

Anyway.

I got from the building to my car in less than 3 seconds. It took roughly the time it takes for a mouse to blink for me to unlock the door and slip inside, slamming the door with a bit too much force. Cracks snaked through the reinforced plastic of the windows. I growled in frustration. The others would be angry – it wasn't the first time that I'd broken something. Then, because it felt good, I growled again, louder, and with much more anger.

Because now I was angry.

Because now that deep chasm of my mind had finally registered the vague familiarity of the girl's smell.

I couldn't believe what I'd done. I knew it was unavoidable, and that, now that it had happened, it couldn't un-happen. Despite that, I was still angry, annoyed. It was so inconvenient to say the least.

"What's wrong?" I looked up to see Renesmee standing at the car door, her strangely beautiful chocolate eyes looking in at me. "You looked annoyed."

Her obvious statement didn't help. I think she knew that though, because when I growled again, this time lower, she laughed. The sound was like wind chimes, but I ignored that fact. In the world I lived in, everyone was beautiful. Bella, Alice, Rose, Esme, even the tall, strange-eyed girl standing at my door – they were the five most beautiful women I'd ever seen. And Edward, Jasper, Emmett and Carlisle, they were beautiful too; although Emmett would hammer me if Edward ever told him that I thought it. Jacob wasn't as beautiful. Not as perfect or flawless as the rest of us. In fact, just by default, if we were considered the image of beauty, then he'd be considered hideous. Because as pale and smooth and cold and still as we are, he's just as dark and rough and warm and fidgety. And as wise as we are, he's just as ignorant.

I smiled. He'd hate me for just thinking that.

Nessie still waited at my door, her expression expectant. "So, what's wrong?" She pushed, her stance implying that she wasn't going anywhere fast.

I looked down at my knees, begging desperately to be wrong, just this once.

But I wasn't wrong. I rarely am.

I did recognise the girl's smell in the hallway, and talking to Nessie had reminded me why.

It was that ever-present smell that haunted our tall, grand house. The smell that, as I crept closer to Nessie's room, grew more and more potent. Because it wasn't _just_ Nessie's room – as much as Bella and Edward insisted otherwise. No, of course not. It was the smell that makes every single vampire hold his or her breath in disgust. It makes all my kind turn away.

It was the smell of a werewolf. The girl in hallway, the one that I'd… well, _that_ one, she was a werewolf. I'd done the vampiric version of imprinting on a werewolf.

Nessie's perfect brow furrowed in a slight frown. "Why aren't you being baby-sat? Shouldn't Dad be making sure you don't do anything stupid?"

I groaned, my head falling (softly, so as not to break any more of my car) onto the steering wheel.

_Crap._

If having baby-sitters stopped me doing anything stupid then I definitely needed one.

**Layla**

"Hey, Lays-"

"Don't call me that."

"-do you know how to do surds?"

I sighed. Trust Melanie to ask me that.

"Yes Mel, I do know how to do surds."

"Cool."

She was silent for a while and I could hear her flipping pages in her workbook. I raised my eyebrows. Did she actually want help with her homework, or had she just been asking for the sake of it? The latter somehow seemed more likely. I let out a breath and turned back to my own homework.

"Hey, Lays-"

"Don't call me that." The interruption was instinctive. I couldn't help it.

"-do you know what pseudonym is?"

"Yes. It's a-"

"Don't worry."

I stared at her again for a moment or two before looking back at the half-completed essay in front of me. My messy writing seemed to blur on the papers, the light blue lines mixing with the black pen strokes. I closed my eyes hard and opened them again. The blurs were gone. Now I could keep writing.

"Hey, Lays-"

"Okay, how would you feel if someone called you-"

"-do you think this dress would look any good on me?" She interrupted me smoothly, holding up a magazine from inside the geography book she was supposed to be studying from and pointing to a tall, photo-shopped model wearing a tight, dark blue dress.

I scowled at her. "Aren't you supposed to be studying geography?"

She shrugged, missing or ignoring the accusation in my tone.

"So what are you going to do when you fail this test as well?" I reminded her, trying my best to sound scornful.

She shrugged again. "It's not like I've failed _that _many other tests. At least not any that matter."

I groaned dramatically and slumped back into my chair. The worn out padding on the back didn't help to pad much, so the effect of my gesture was ruined when I winced as my back slammed hard against solid wood.

Mel laughed and went back to looking at her magazine, idly turning pages and stopping every so often to closely examine another dress. Or maybe a pair of shoes or a belt. It didn't really matter what she was examining, I guess. It clearly wasn't geography.

To avoid getting annoyed at her I averted my gaze, instead looking around the room that we were in.

The room itself was small, having that vaguely condensed look that a lot of single-storey houses tend to have. I knew that the walls were bare brick, but hardly any of them were visible behind high shelves crowded with food, dishes and cutlery. Mel's house was always kind of messy; I liked it, personally, I thought it gave it a certain feel. A lived-in feel, maybe. Dirty dishes were scattered in the sink, and, just for something to do that _wasn't_ my homework, I stood and began moving bowls, glasses and cutlery into the dishwasher. Someone had to keep the house at least a bit tidy.

Mel watched me with her gentle hazel eyes, always shining as if she were about to burst out laughing.

"You don't need to clean, you know. Mum does that," she pointed out, knowing that it'd make no difference.

"I know. But I have nothing better to do." My words were mumbled; after all, I was busy packing the dishwasher.

"What about your essay?"

I rolled my eyes. "Hypocrite." She grinned widely, but stopped bothering me.

Finished with the dirty dishes, I did a quick survey of the rest of the kitchen. The fridge door was closed (a bonus, as Mel's three younger siblings never seemed to quite grasp the concept of preventing power loss) and the tap extruding from the far wall wasn't dripping. When Mel and me had been younger that tap had been object of immense curiosity to us. Who had put the tap there? Maybe a burglar had installed it as a secret entry point? Maybe if you turned the handle four and half times to the right a trapdoor opened in the floor? Neither thing had actually happened, although we'd definitely tried. We _had_ managed to flood the entire kitchen once. Mel's Mum hadn't been too happy about that.

Sighing, I wandered back to the kitchen table and sat back in my chair, trying to focus on my homework again. This essay was due tomorrow and I was still 500 words below the limit. _"You do know that the limit is the _maximum_ number of words, so you can always write _less_"_ had been Mel's useful response to my problem. _Thanks_.

I picked up my pen and poised it in my hand. Usually essay writing was pretty easy for me. I just had to get in the right mind-set and the words came to me. I'd be over the limit in half an hour if I could just start thinking properly.

"Hey, Lays-" I cringed at Mel's interruption.

"Please, don't call me that, it sounds dumb, plus it-"

"-what had you been about to say last time, 'how would I like it if someone called you-'?"

I appraised her for a second, wondering if she actually wanted an answer for this question. Her bright eyes were eager.

I bit my lip. "How would you like it if someone called you 'screw' or 'bang' or 'knock' or 'tap'?"

"Or 'fuck'?"

"Mel! Language!" My voice was almost a shriek. In fact, it sounded remarkably like our history teacher, Miss Baker. My talent at performing impressions was obviously improving.

We were both silent for a moment as I tried not to laugh. Mel always swore, it was normal for her. Obviously I'd been brought up differently. Mel's older brother, Adam, kept a tab of how many times he'd ever heard me swear. After him having known me for eleven years, my tab was at four. I was quite proud, personally.

"Yes. Or that. Or any other word that has that same general meaning." I continued as if she hadn't spoken. "I mean, it's embarrassing to be called 'Lays'. Imagine if a cute-ish guy walked past and heard you saying, 'so _Lay_, what's up?' What would he think of me? Seriously, I bet you couldn't handle it if I called you 'screw' for the rest of your life."

See, it was clear from the moment I'd said the word "bet" that I'd made a mistake. Mel wasn't one to back down from a bet.

"Twenty bucks that I can cope for a whole term."

"Only a term? And I don't have that much, anyway!"

"Ten dollars then, easy as."

I considered. There was a lot of potential for disaster in calling my best friend 'screw' for a term. On the other hand, I would almost definitely lose my ten dollars.

"Fine then. Deal. I'll bet you 10 that you cannot put up with me calling you any nickname that means sex."  
Mel raised her eyebrows at my unusual use of relatively rude language, but offered her hand none the less. We shook on our bet. Mel wanted to do the spit-on-palm-thing, but I flat out refused. I wasn't about to sink _that_ low.

"So, Lays."

"Yes, Screw."

Mel grinned again. "Do you think Jason Cullen would go with me to the dance if I was wearing _this_." She held up her magazine again. Her finger was on a picture of another tall, slim model in an absolutely hideous salmon pink dress. The dress had ruffles and puffy sleeves. Yes, _ruffles_. I shuddered.

"Definitely. I can't _imagine_ him refusing you." My tone was teasing.

Mel held my gaze, forcing herself to keep a straight face. I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing first.

"Do you really think so?" Her voice was perfect. She sounded exactly like a desperate, love-struck fourteen year old that had just been told that her crush looked at her. Actually, she also sounded just like herself when I'd told her last week that Jason Cullen, easily the best-looking guy at school, had looked at her. He hadn't even been in the room at the time, but she didn't know that.

I nodded, worrying that if I opened my mouth the laughter would escape.

In unison we both lost control.

Mel fell off her chair she was laughing so hard. I managed to control myself for long enough to point at her, and then laughed some more.

That was how Adam found us fifteen minutes later when he came out of his room to tell me that Mum had called for me to go home.

**Jason**

Edward shot me a look the moment he saw me. Actually, he probably would've had that same look when he'd first _heard_ me. Only I hadn't been there to see the look, so it would've been pointless. Anyway, he looked at me and I immediately knew that he'd read my thoughts. Of course, I was thinking about _her_. The stupid girl in the stupid hallway.

I groaned. Whatever Edward wanted to tell me it wouldn't be good. I just _knew_ it wouldn't be. This thought made him smirk, although his eyes stayed in the same deliberate stance. He wanted to talk to me. As if he'd help. Maybe his little romance with Bella had worked out well, but, quite frankly, that had been very different. For starters, Bella had loved him back, she still did (an unexpected bonus, if you ask me). Secondly, he'd been waiting for almost a century for her – he'd been ready to settle down with one girl. I, who'd only been a vampire for a little over ten years, still had plenty of vampiric experiences to try. This thought got a painfully twisted expression from Edward. Let him make what he wanted out of that.

And thirdly, most importantly, the girl I'd seen wasn't a… well… Edward wouldn't get _that_ bit of information out of me without at least a bit of effort.

Beside her husband, Bella watched in silent confusion as this small exchanged went on. Her eyes – a deep, rich gold, she'd gone hunting yesterday – were narrowed. She didn't like being out of the loop.

Upstairs, from roughly Jake and Renesmee's room, I heard a crash. It sounded like something had broken. Either the door or the bed. I considered saying this out loud, but Bella and Edward's expressions warned me otherwise. Their eyes were fixed on the ceiling, and their faces were in identical scowls. They didn't exactly seem to enjoy being able to _hear_ their daughter's sex-life (at this point Edward's eyes flickered from the ceiling to me, narrowed threateningly). I, personally, thought it was pretty hypocritical of them, considering what _their_ sex-life was like…

Edward glared at me again, and, wondering what would happen to a vampire if they broke one of their limbs (or more than one), I chose to slip out of the foyer and upstairs to my room. As I passed Renesmee and Jake's room I whispered, "Keep it down, your Mummy and Daddy might find out what you're doing and force you to endure 'the talk'." The sound of sniggers drifted back to me, but, mercifully, they stayed quiet. But Edward mightn't be getting too much relief with their thoughts still open to him. Poor guy.

I reached my room at the end of the hallway that stretched the length of the house and went inside, shutting my door behind me.

My room wasn't very big, one of the smallest in the house, but it was also the only room with only one occupant, so I guess getting the smallest room should've been expected. I didn't like this house as much as I'd liked our old one in Shelton, but that was probably because I'd been much more familiar with Shelton. I _had _grown up there after all. And our house there had been much bigger. _Much_ bigger.

But, as the lives of a coven of vampires went, the Cullens had had to move on, taking me with them. I'd joined them in Shelton, after Carlisle had changed me. I'd been changed for a very simple reason: I was dying.

Ten years ago – although many of the human memories were dim and had faded over time – my dad, my human dad, had lost his job. We'd lost everything. Our house, our money, our cars. Before that we'd been insanely rich – rich enough to get noticed first for our money, and second for everything else. My mum had a miscarriage because of the stress of losing all of that. It was like a living hell. And I'd lived it for one and a half years. Carlisle had found me one night, ironically enough, in a graveyard. I didn't remember much of that day. I'd failed a test at school. When I'd gotten home Dad was passed out on the couch, surrounded by bottles of spirits (alcoholic spirits, not the 'godly' kind). Mum was nowhere to be seen. So I'd done the only thing that was left to do.

I can't remember how many pills I'd swallowed, how much stuff I'd injected or how much drink had burned down my throat. The pain had been unendurable, impossible to get rid of, impossible to numb. Carlisle had seen I was dying. And he'd saved me. He'd saved me in the only possible way. Four days later – it had taken longer than usual because the venom had trouble bypassing all the junk that I'd pumped into my blood – I'd woken up. My hell was gone. I was alive again. And it was amazing.

We'd had to leave shortly after. I'd only lived at the Shelton house for a couple of years.

It took me six solid years to get over the bloodlust. And yet, my record was as clean as Bella's. I'd never, ever, killed a human. Not even my parents, although for our entire time in Shelton I'd begged for the others to let me. Mum and Dad's lives weren't worth living. They'd deserted their own son. They'd destroyed their and my life. They deserved nothing but death. But I hadn't killed them. Carlisle wouldn't allow it. And, in my heart, deep, deep down, I know that I wouldn't have been able to do it. It was far better to leave. This way I could just forget about them, forget about that life. Of course, a vampire never forgets. I should've known that.

So now, I stared at the plain white ceiling of my bedroom at our new house. We'd moved here, to Ocean Shores, a month ago. Edward, Bella, Alice and me were enrolled in year nine, as freshmen, so we had a good four years left until we even needed to consider leaving. I guess that was good. Rose, Emmett and Jasper were in year ten, sophomores, but we still all stayed together as often as possible, least of all because each of the 'couples' that my family was made up of couldn't endure being apart for much longer than a few hours. I couldn't help feeling sorry for Alice and Jasper; they were always separated at school. Still, there was no way that Jasper could've passed for a freshman, and it was best to spread out our family as much as possible. I was just grateful that I hadn't been put a year lower. Technically, I was the youngest Cullen in more than one way.

Edward had been changed when he was seventeen. I'd been sixteen. Carlisle thinks I was too young. He thinks he should've waited, tried to help me in every human way possible before healing me like this. Not that he'd ever tell me that. But, of course, Edward had heard him, and Edward had told me.

A weak breeze blew outside, fluttering my soaked curtains. I must've forgotten to close them before I'd left for school this morning. Esme would be mad. I sighed, noticing that the room next door was now mercifully silent. Apparently Jake and Renesmee had finished their fun. Finally.

From my door, a quiet chuckle came and I looked up. Edward was standing there, alone for once, his eyes fixed on me. He still wanted to know what had happened today with the girl. I rolled my eyes and motioned or him to come in, sitting up and being careful not to lean against the bed-head. It wasn't that I needed to, but it just felt so human to lean back onto something to support you. If I leant back now I'd break whatever my support was. I'd already crushed four bed-heads. Best not to risk this one too.

"What happened?" Edward asked, sitting carefully at the foot of my bed. "All I could hear was a lot of mumbling about some girl. Renesmee knew something too, but she-"

I smirked. "She's busy," I put in, my tone suggestive.

Edward frowned. "Yes. _Busy_."

We were both silent as I let him ponder that thought for a while. As far as friends went, Edward was probably my closest one, but that didn't mean that it wasn't satisfactory to see him suffer every once in a while. It got exhausting being friends with someone so controlled.

"So, who's this girl?" he asked, feigning interest. I say feigning because Bella had just appeared at my door and wasted no time in gliding in and seating herself at Edward's feet, her head resting against his legs. I gagged pointedly, and one of them muttered something about 'immaturity'.

"You'd know who 'this girl' was if you'd been doing your duty and baby-sitting me." I pointed out, choosing the delay tactic and hoping that Bella's presence would decrease her husband's interest in my situation.

"I was busy." He said, flashing his teeth in a grin. "_Busy_."

I rolled my eyes again. "I thought we had a ban in place on bad jokes."

He shrugged, unperturbed. Bella looked confused again. Edward winked at her. Understanding dawned on her face and she looked down in embarrassment. I faked a shudder.

"You know how werewolves imprint on people?" I began, deciding to take the long route around to get to my point.

My small audience nodded, scowling at the memory of our resident werewolf's imprinting choice. I made an internal note to thank Jacob when he woke up.

"Well, what's it called when vampires do it?"

A smile crept slowly onto Bella's lips until it sat there confidently. Edward's eyes widened in surprise. I looked away from both of them, annoyed at their reactions.

They thought that this was a good thing. They didn't know the details.

"What details?" Edward's tone was suspicious.

I shook my head, still looking away. Why me? Why did it have to be me who fell in love with someone who it was so obviously impossible for me to be with? It wasn't fair.

"What?" Bella pressed, her smile gone.

My gaze crawled up to meet Edward's. "She's a werewolf."

* * *

**Review?**

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	3. Through My Eyes

**So, after the amazingly enthusiastic greeting that the last chapter got (very heavy sarcasm)... still I thought that maybe the two or so people who HAVE read this deserved to get another chapter. Here it is.**

**Dislcaimer: Stephenie Meyer's stories are much more popular than mine. If I was her then this story would be one of hers and it would be full of reviews from fans. So clearly I'm not her and Twilight doesn't belong to me. I don't know why I couldn't have just said that in the first place.**

_There will be times on this journey  
__All you'll see is darkness  
__But out there somewhere  
__Daylight finds you  
__If you keep believing_

_--Phil Collins, Look Through My Eyes_

**Layla**

"Oh, he's cute!" Mel's exclamation was a little too loud for me to be positive that the guy she was pointing at hadn't heard, but I figured if I just looked down and sped up my steps he'd never know that I was with the girl who'd said it.

"He looks about twelve." I was yet to discover exactly why Adam had chosen to accompany us on what was sure to be one of the girly-est, and, quite frankly, boring-est shopping trips of his teenage life (which was quite a feat considering that he was Mel's brother). Still, I appreciated his company. His sarcastic comments were just another perk.

Mel immediately went into reverse. "I _know_ that. That's why I said 'cute'. That little baby over there is cute too."

I rolled my eyes towards Adam. "Now she's hitting on babies." Then, for Mel's benefit, "Screw is hitting on babies – what irony."

Adam sighed dramatically. "What next?"

Mel ignored us. She also sped up her step, distancing herself from us. Immediately I felt bad, and jogged to catch up to her. Adam laughed at my concern, and I resisted the temptation to remind him that I was here with his sister, not him. No matter what he thought.

"I'm sorry, Screw… Mel." My apology sounded sincere, and it looked like Mel was over Adam's and my snipes anyway.

"Sure you are." Okay, so maybe she wasn't completely over it, but she was getting there.

I attempted a safer topic of conversation. "What about that shop over there?" Vaguely I pointed towards a shop that looked like it might stock dresses suitable for the dance. Mel's eyes sparkled even more than usual and she grabbed my hand, pulling me towards it. I groaned as we entered through the doors. The entire shop was light pink and off-white. It was exactly the kind of shop that Mel was looking for. The type that made me want to retch. I held back that instinct and faked enthusiasm. I was doing this for my best friend.

Adam sidled up beside me, his expression mirroring how I felt. "Wow, you look so at home here." I rolled my eyes and shoved him away from me. I was here with Mel. _Mel_. Adam was just tagging along. "No, seriously, I can just imagine you working here. You'd love it."

"Shut up," I muttered, shoving him harder this time and speeding away from him before he could taunt me any more. It was only after I'd nodded and shook my head at a few of Mel's choices that I realised that maybe Adam had been bugging because he'd wanted me to pay attention to him. No. He wasn't that immature. At least not in this situation.

I let myself be towed off to the change rooms where I waited outside for Mel to present each one of her dresses. A really un-helpful salesman kept telling her that she looked great, but – just like the loyal friend who she was – Mel let the decisions rest on my opinion. Hardly any of the dresses looked good on her and only a few looked great. After sending the salesman to put all of the not-so-great dresses back, Mel winged for a bit about her figure (_full_, I insisted, _not fat_) and how much she envied me (who most closely resembled a stick). Then we called Adam over to judge the remaining dresses. He was pretty good as a judge – so good that his comments gave Mel and me plenty of material in our 'Adam is gay' theory, which gave us a safe topic of conversation as we left the shop (dress-less, Mel had put one on hold to get if we didn't find anything else).

In fact, the dance didn't even come up in our conversation until after we'd eaten lunch, when Mel had gone to the bathroom and Adam and me were left at our table to finish off the food.

"So…" From Adam's tone I could tell that whatever he wanted to talk about wasn't something that I'd want to hear.

"So what?" I asked trying to lighten the mood.

He chuckled a little, and casually reached over to hold my hand. Oh dear. I frowned. Adam knew the rules about this. "Have you got a date for the dance?"

I shook my head, staying silent. This was awkward. Last year, and the year before, Adam and me had been going out. To me it was just a convenience thing. To him I don't think it was. I mean, I'd liked him – I still did – but not in the same way that he liked me. He was my best friend's brother. That was it. But, being the inconsiderate, live-for-the-moment, show-off type that I used to be, I'd let him come to his own conclusions about how I felt. The worst part was that there had never been an actual break up. Eventually I'd taken pity on him and made it clear that I wasn't all that serious about us. After that I'd just assumed that it was over. A stupid assumption to make apparently.

"Can I go with you?"

I paused; teetering on the edge of what I knew would end up being a significant decision. This wasn't the first time since we'd stopped going out that Adam had tried ti pull me in again. Yet, there was something different about this time. It was the school dance. Everyone would be watching, paying very close attention to every detail of everyone else. I couldn't go alone. But, if people saw me going with Adam… then I'd have to start it up again. That wasn't a path that I wanted to go down again. I didn't like seeing him get hurt because of me.

Mel's light, breezy laugh awoke me from my stupor. She slid deftly into the seat beside me, quickly slapping her brother's hand off mine. "You can't go with her to the dance." Her tone was almost condoling.

Adam look taken aback. "Why not?" His eyes, a slightly darker hazel than his sister's, bored into mine. I looked away. Why did he put himself in positions where he knew he'd just get hurt? Maybe he knew how much I didn't want to hurt him. Maybe he knew that it might even be enough to…

"Because she's going with someone else."

I tried not to react, and kept my gaze down. What was Mel going on about?

"Who?" It wasn't hard to tell that Adam was suspicious.

"Jason Cullen."

I twitched. Just the slightest little twitch as I resisted the two desires to laugh and blush. I think Adam took my twitch the wrong way though.

"Jason Cullen?"

Because I wasn't looking at him, thus had no clue as to what he was thinking, Adam's tone surprised me. He believed that? His attraction to me must go deeper than I'd ever imagined if he saw such a flawed version of me that he thought one of the Cullens – the perfect, flawless, mysterious, and very antisocial _Cullens_ – would even look twice at me. Or however many looks it takes to ask someone to a dance. Especially _Jason_.

Still, considering the amount of thought that usually went into Mel's excuses, this was one of her better ones. For starters, Jason was the only single member of the Cullen family. If she'd said Edward or Jasper, Adam would have shrugged it off immediately.

"Well…" Mel's tone was just as light and cheery as before, and I forced myself to obey her as she pulled me up from my chair and back towards the main shopping area. "Provided that she finds the right dress she's going with him."

I chanced a look up at Mel, she was smirking. "Huh?"

"You know: samoln-pink, puffy sleeves, ruffles… don't you remember talking about this?"

Groaning, I pulled my arm from her grip. Great. I could tell that I was going to have to spend money on this made-up dress too. Adam wasn't completely convinced. Yet.

**Jason**

"So what are you going to do?" I loved how laid-back Renesmee was about this entire situation. It certainly contrasted with the way that the rest of us were reacting. Besides Jacob, of course, who thought that the entire thing was a joke. He couldn't quite understand what was so catastrophic about falling in love with a werewolf.

I shrugged. What could I do? It wasn't like I could ignore it. But I also couldn't do anything. The combination of those two realities made my next step rather difficult to perceive.

"Are you sure she was a werewolf?" Carlisle's tone was sharp. He'd already asked me this same question about twenty times, although he worded it differently every time to make it seem less repetitive.

"Yes."

"Absolutely certain?"

I sighed and let my head fall onto the back of the couch. "Yes. Come on. I mean, just this once I would _love_ to be wrong, but I'm not."

Carlisle glanced at Edward, who shrugged. "He definitely thinks he's right." The way he said it – overly casual and passé – implied that he doubted the validity of my thoughts. What was so bad about them?

"Of course I'm right! We live with a werewolf – do you honestly think I wouldn't be able to recognise the smell? Or that I could confuse some other smell with it?" My words were angry. The presence of werewolves hardly seemed like the problem here.

"It is a problem," Edward snapped at me harshly. Insistently. I wondered if he believed it himself. Out of all of them, he knew what it was like to fall in love with a different species. A different species that you weren't allowed to fall in love with. He should be the one to sympathise with me on this front.

Fractionally, he twitched his head to the side, shaking it. So he'd decided that he wasn't going to sympathise? I aimed my question at him, not that I was perfectly sure that I could direct my thoughts. Again, he made only the slightest movement – a nod this time. Fine then. No sympathy. I didn't care. I could handle this all by myself. While all the rest of them were worrying about the existence of werewolves, I was going to tackle the love thing alone.

Love…

Just the word – just the _thought_ of the word – crept me out more than I would've believed before. I couldn't be in love! I was sixteen! Or at least I looked sixteen. Really I was twenty-six. Maybe it was time for me to settle down a bit.

And then there was the matter of the girl. Because she, of course, had no idea about any of this. At least she'd have a good idea of what I was, so I wouldn't have to explain that. Although I'd have to hope that she wasn't too insistent about treaties and boundaries and the whole 'hating each other' thing. That would get annoying. Very annoying if this stupid vampiric-imprinting thing had anything to say about itself. The desire was like a physical pull. Worse than the pull for blood that I felt now, almost as bad as it had been a few years ago for me. It was _need_. It wasn't so hard to imagine Edward resisting Bella's blood now that I could feel this. Yes, it would've been hard, but this… it was painful to think about.

I shook my head quickly, willing the thoughts to go away. How could I ever have wanted this? How could it be that, only three days ago on Friday, I'd practically been begging myself to fall in love with one of those girls? Well, wish granted. This wasn't good, it wasn't a relief – it was torture. Even worse because nobody really cared about how I was handling it. Urgh. When I was perfectly in control (like I usually was) they treated me like a two year-old, but when I needed looking after to stop me doing something stupid they ignored me.

Quickly I stood and headed for the back doors. I needed to hunt. Now. Carlisle said something. The rushing sound that filled my ears as I let myself be consumed by my instincts drowned his words out. I think Edward answered his question for me. I'm not sure though. I was already rushing out into the thick woods behind our house.

As I passed Edward and Bella's house (they still needed their own place, even though they had a room in the house – a big room – which I spent a fair amount of my free time attempting to convince Carlisle should be mine) a shape appeared on my left. I groaned and sped up. The shape did too.

"Don't be stupid Jay, you know that you can't outrun me." Renesmee's tone was teasing.

I ignored her and pushed myself forward harder. She still kept up with me. I failed to understand the point of a vampire being to superior to any other creature if each of us still had abilities that the others didn't. I mean, she could transfer her thoughts to people _and_ run as fast as her father. It wasn't fair. Sure, my 'power' was totally awesome (remember the thing about being a _fantastic _actor?) – I could shape shift. But I had only gottn one really good power. Nessie got two (including being fast). So did Edward. It sucked that he was my friend. If he wasn't I could get him back for being a so much cooler vampire than me. Except that he could still read my mind inside whatever shape I'd shifted into. Which is not fair, by the way.

Nessie laughed at the exhilaration from running so fast and overtook me, leaping up into a tree and swinging through the branches like some sort of strangely graceful, really pale monkey with long, bronze, wavy hair. I rolled my eyes. Show off. I was both stronger than her and taller than her, yet she still had some level of balance that I couldn't quite conquer. I blamed it on her genes. Edward was smaller than me too, but still faster. I was stronger than him though. And Bella… well, she wasn't good at much, but she had one of the most useful powers, so that made up for it a lot.

"Can you go away?" I asked, slowing down to a more comfortable speed. I didn't feel tired exactly, I just felt sort of uncomfortable. Like I should be tired.

"No. Someone has to baby-sit you."

I growled and considered speeding up again. There was no way that I could out-run her, but maybe with her in the trees… I still doubted that I'd be able to do it.

"I mean, look at what happened when no one watched you after lunch on Friday. You imprinted!" She seemed excited. I growled again and tried to shut her voice out, concentrating on the day-old bear tracks that I was crossing. Changing my path, I turned to follow them. In a matter of seconds Nessie and launched herself out of the tree and was standing in my way. I stopped, glaring at her.

"You can't go this way," she said, "It'll come too close to the human walking tracks."

I rolled my eyes and pushed past her. "Nobody will be walking around here on a day like this." The endless sheet of drizzle – that, I thought, was the _only _significant characteristic of this part if the world – had been falling for over a week now. Who'd want to be walking?

Nessie came around to stand beside me and grabbed my arm, stopping me. "It doesn't matter. Hunting here is a risk. I'm not allowed to expose you to risks."

I raised my eyebrows. "So you're doing this to save your own skin? Not for the safety of any unfortunate people who I might come upon?"

"Exactly."

A humourless chuckled slipped from my lips. "Leave. That way it won't be on your conscience." With that I dodged around her and disappeared quickly into the woods. Yes, it was a stupid thing to do – to hunt so close to a place where there was even the slightest chance of the presence of humans. And yes, I shouldn't have snapped at Nessie like that, she was just doing what she'd been told. She was trying to help. The problem was that I didn't want help. I didn't want a guardian or someone to tell me that I'd been a bad little boy falling in love so irresponsibly like that. I wanted sympathy. I wanted someone to pat me on the back and tell me that I'd figure out how to get away from this mess. Or at least to tell me that, while it was definitely bad, at least it couldn't get any worse.

But it _could _get worse and I knew it.

What if there was a tribe of werewolves here – real ones? We'd have to leave. Again. None of us would like that. We'd only lived here for a month after all. We'd should've been able to stay here for at least another four years, and maybe even longer after that. It was rare to find a safe place for us to live. Also rare to find a safe place where no one would recognise us. With such a big 'family', it was getting difficult to still remain as elusive as was necessary.

And I wasn't sure if I'd be able to leave. Not now.

What if Nessie didn't come to get me? If I'd annoyed her enough with my words she wouldn't come. Then she'd get in trouble for putting me in danger.

What if the girl had already imprinted? To me, this seemed much, much worse than either of the other problems. What would I do? Edward and Bella's story came back to me, what he'd almost done when he'd thought she was dead. I knew with startling clarity that I'd do exactly the same thing if anything happened to this girl.

The throbbing in my ears increased suddenly as I sensed another smell, one powerful enough to shunt my thoughts aside and consume my mind.

Who could have known that it would get so much worse, so soon? I hadn't even bothered to consider 'what if some people _had _decided to go for a walk today down this trail'? Maybe I should've. Maybe if I had I would've turned back around, gone back to Nessie.

Even as those thoughts went trough my head my pace increased, becoming smoother, faster and virtually silent. The humans wouldn't hear me until too late. Much too late. My family would forgive me; I knew they would. They'd understand that I lost control. That I _had_ to kill the people. All four of them. A family, I think. Two adults and two children. Probably out on a hike for the day. They were dressed warmly, expecting the cool weather. They were all quite fit. I could almost _feel_ the warmth of the fresh, healthy blood flowing through them. Active people's blood was nicer than non-active people's – more pure and sweet, less cholesterol blocking them up. And I could tell all of that about these four people from how they smelt.

Venom coated my teeth and pooled in my mouth. I licked my lips. I was hungry. I'd never hunted humans before, but the skill seemed mostly instinctive.

Concentrating for a moment I forced myself to shape-shift. This, I would do for Carlisle and the rest of my family. If four hikers were mauled to death by a bear or wolf it would seem realistic. No one would bat an eyelid at us. Not even the werewolves – if there were any.

Now I was a wolf. At least I looked like one. In reality I was the same thing as a vampire, only in wolf form. I still had all the usual abilities of vampires – the hard, cold skin, the unnatural strength, the sweet scent, the grace and beauty – only it was all in wolf form. My fur was the lightest of greys, almost white. Swiftly I amended this flaw – it would ruin my disguise if I looked like an Arctic Wolf instead of a normal one. My fur rippled into a darker grey, and some of the strands matted together to give me a wilder look. I had to be thorough.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered if I'd taken on the wolf-form because my thoughts were still lingering on the girl. Maybe. A large percentage of my mind didn't care. The scent of humans had all but driven the girl from my mind. I was hunting.

Easily, I calculated the exact point of impact between the humans and me. I'd never been to this part of the woods before, but that shouldn't mean much, if there were anything that would force me to detour I'd have seen or smelt it by now. The wolf's senses, already so much sharper than a person's, were further improved by my vampiric abilities. As a comparison, think of how much a human's senses are improved when they become a vampire. Now apply the same level of improvement to a wolf.

I was invincible. Unstoppable.

I sped up, my paws barely skimming the ground as I gained more ground on the humans.

Nothing stood between them and me except a few hundred metres of forest. I could've jumped the distance if there weren't trees in my way.

The youngest person, a little boy, not yet a teenager, was having trouble breathing. His breaths were rasping out swiftly. He was asthmatic. The family would have to stop soon to give him a chance to rest.

I slowed, now moving at the same pace as them. I'd have to plan my attack carefully. Should I wait until the humans stopped?

The other child, this one a girl, was talking – complaining about something. Her parents laughed at her whining, and after a while she joined in with their laughter. "I would really _like_ a nice dress," she admitted, "Just once, for the dance."

I'm not sure if it was her words, what happened after she spoke, or a combination of the two that made me react the way I did.

At her words, I felt some twitch in my mind, some hint of remorse or guilt – some reminder of who I was and of what I was doing. My instincts didn't like that; they didn't want to be messed with. I sped up again. I was going to kill them now. Later I'd have plenty of time to think about it.

The boy was falling behind his family even more. Closer to me. I'd kill him first, break his neck with one pull from my impossibly strong jaws. He wouldn't even feel it.

What happened next was the unexpected bit.

Just as I broke through the last few trees and launched myself into the air, my mouth aimed at the back of the boy's neck, he stumbled and fell. I could've fixed up my aim. My mind worked fast enough for that to be possible.

But I hadn't fixed up my aim. As amazing as it sounded, I'd missed on purpose.

My jump went too far and I ended up barrelling through the trees on the other side of the trail. I was still a vampire, so I hadn't hurt myself – quite the opposite: I'd collapsed a couple of trees during my fall – but my mind was confused. Why hadn't I killed the boy? Before I could organise my thoughts, the boy screamed. His voice was frail but his family was close enough to hear him.

"Tom!" His sister was the first to reach him and immediately she bent down beside him. "Tom? Are you okay? What happened?"

I was still confused. Why had I missed the boy? What dance had the girl been talking about? Where were the parents? Why wasn't I attacking the girl now? Why didn't I have a baby-sitter? Did I know this girl? My hazy thoughts didn't follow any logical order. I didn't realise until both the parents had arrived at the boy's side as well that the instinctive side of my brain was battling with the moral, sensible side.

Slowly I stood, wondering if I had control over either side of my brain.

Even now, with the element of surprise lost, this battle wouldn't be a hard one to win. Even if the parents had brought a radar with them and the nearest ranger station had been alerted that they were going hiking and due back tonight, no one would come looking for them until much too late. I'd even have enough time to fabricate the evidence. I could find some animal blood to put in their drained corpses. No one would bother checking the blood types if the bodies were still recognisable. Their friends and family could have a proper funeral. All our lives would go on.

Yet, there was a large part of me that objected to that plan. I felt like I knew these people. The girl, easy-going, carefree, joking and laughing with her family like any other girl. The parents, fussing over their son with similar relieved expressions, offering him an inhaler and apologising profusely for not stopping earlier. The little boy Tom, who looked no older than nine or ten. His round glasses askew and his dark hair tousled. Had I really been about to kill him? Had I really planned to murder this entire family? And for what? Because was I angry. Because I was hungry. I was disgusted with myself.

I took a few cautious steps forward. I wouldn't have to pass the family again to get back my house, running a mile further up the trial would be easy enough, but I wanted to pass them. I felt I owed them an apology.

I shook myself, losing some of the leaves and twigs from my fur. Carefully I trotted out of the wreckage that my fall had caused, hoping that no rangers would inspect this trail any time soon. It'd have to be one very big bear to reduce two entire trees to splinters.

The boy looked away from his parents, embarrassed at their babying. I could relate to that feeling. His eyes met mine and he stiffened, raising a shaking finger to point at me.

"That wolf, right there." Clearly he'd been telling his family what had made him scream. The rest of them turned to look at me and they froze too.

I stopped, and cocked my head to the side, trying to act wolfish. In truth I'd never encountered a wild wolf before (at least not for long enough to study its behaviour) so I wasn't exactly sure what _was_ wolfish behaviour. The girl, much braver – or stupider – than I would ever have imagined, extended her hand towards me. Still acting like a wolf, I moved forward another few steps, now standing on the cleared trail next to the family. But no level of acting could bring me to sniff that girl's hand. Already the scent was almost overwhelming. I wasn't going to put them in any more danger than they were already in. Locking my gaze with the boy's one more time, I tried to put as much of my sorrow into my eyes as I could. Wolves don't feel sorrow though, or at least not this kind of sorrow. They never regret their own actions. Or maybe they just never do anything worth regretting.

Quickly, unsure of how much longer I'd be able to resist the smell, I turned back to direction that I'd come from and sped off into the thick woods. Wolves are fast. Vampiric-wolves are faster. The moment I was sure that I was out of the family's sight I sped up to my full speed. Not even Edward or Renesmee would have had any hope of catching up with me now.

I found the bear-trail again and followed that away from the house.

The bear had three cubs. I killed them all along with their mother.

**Layla**

"Did you get a dress?" Mum's exhausted-sounding voice came from the kitchen as I entered the house.

"Yep." I tried to keep the acid out of my tone. Mum wouldn't want to hear that I hated my dress. She'd lecture me about spending money irresponsibly. Even though it was my _own_ money that I used to buy it. On the other hand, it had only been 70. In any other circumstances I would've expected to be paid 70 to buy it though, not the other way around. It was hideous. Truly hideous. So hideous that I'd flat-out refused to try it on, both because I was scared that it'd be too small and because, frankly, it looked bad enough on the rack for me to be pretty sure that it would be just as bad on me. It was everything Mel had described to Adam. Salmon pink. Ruffles. Although I had managed to escape from the puffy sleeves by reminding Mel that the dance was in July and that it would be too hot for full-length sleeves. She'd pointed out that puffy sleeves didn't have to be full-length, but given up on that pursue in the end anyway.

"What's it like?"

I made a non-committal sound and headed towards my room. Luckily, Mum was usually too busy to pay too much attention to my life. I doubted that she'd bring up the dress in conversation ever again. Smart woman. I wish I'd taken after her more.

"Layla!" I'd just shoved my dress under my bed when Kari, my little sister came running into my room.

"You got a dress? What's it like?" If Mel hadn't already been my best friend for a year before Kari was born then Kari would be my best friend. I loved her to death.

I groaned and stood up to close my door, still a little worried about Mum hearing.

Kari grinned and perched herself on my bed. "That bad?" For a ten year-old, my sister was pretty mature. Mel said that was a result of growing with someone so overly serious. She also said it was because of me that she looked virtually middle-aged. I told her that it was far too early to be worrying about wrinkles, but that really she should be looking at dyes to conceal her grey hairs. Usually she slapped me at this point.

"It's pink."

Kari made a face, feeling my horror.

"And it has ruffles."

"_Ruffles_?"

I nodded in despair.

Kari slipped off my bed and patted my shoulder in condolence. "I'm so sorry."

I faked a few sobs, burying my face in hands. "Thank you."

"I hope it was cheap," she offered, sounding like she wasn't convinced that I hadn't gotten myself ripped off.

I perked up a bit, quite proud of my bargain hunting skills. "Seventy dollars. I didn't think that was too bad for a proper dress."

Kari nodded, impressed. "Not bad. But I want to see it on you before I make any more judgements."

I huffed in annoyance. I really didn't want to wear the dress.

"What, you think you're too fat for it?" Kari skipped out of reach before I could hit her, and scurried under my bed to hide.

I rolled my eyes and stood. "Shove the box out and I'll get changed. And close your eyes."

She agreed quickly and pushed the box out, shuffling into its place and turning to face the wall so that she wouldn't see me changing.

I took a few minutes to sort through all the layers of skirt and find where my legs were actually supposed to go, and then another thirty seconds or so to get the zipper undone. Once I was in the dress though it was easy enough to do it all up (I was very grateful that there weren't any buttons and only one clip at the top). I glanced at myself in my mirror before telling Kari that it was okay for her to come out.

She was silent.

I blushed. I hadn't though it was _that_ bad.

"You really do look terrible, you know."

"Thanks," I muttered. Beginning to the plan the best revenge imaginable on Mel. It was going to involve dog-poo and broccoli. Lots of broccoli…

"It's just that, without the right shoes your outfit looks really incomplete. And you need a necklace and some bracelets or something. A nice purse wouldn't hurt. Make up would be preferable, but you have nice skin without it."

I blinked hard, trying to clear my head. "Huh? Shoes, jewellery, purse… what are you going on about?"

Kari giggled lightly, her expression excited. "Have you looked at yourself? You look amazing! Even in a 70 dress!"

My brow furrowed as I turned back to look in the mirror. "Really?" All I saw was a tall, thin girl in a light-pink dress. The girl was me, but, at the same time. Not me. She looked taller, older, prettier too. I smiled shyly. Amazing? That was an overstatement. But good? I wouldn't have been lying to describe it as good. "Oh."

Kari was practically bouncing. "See? How great do you look?"

I snorted, breaking the 'older, prettier' impression. "I think 'amazing' is a bit over the top. I don't look bad though."

Kari rolled her eyes. "You need to be more confident. You do look amazing." Her ton was so certain that I almost believed her. "Go show Mel, she'll want to see."

I shook my head and turned away from the mirror. "I can't go to Mel's house like this."

"Why not? It's just down the street a bit, and everyone knows that you're insane anyway."

I laughed and sat down on my bed, smoothing out the layers of skirt. Throwing herself down beside me, Kari picked up one of the layers of material and fingered it gently. "Adam wouldn't leave me alone today." Okay, so it was hypocritical of me to tell Kari off for her over-statements and then say that, but I was annoyed. If Adam had just held off asking me to the dance until after today I could've showed Mel how my dress looked without being half-terrified that her brother would see me and ask me out again, as a separate event to the dance.

"Really?" Kari had closely followed the ups and downs of me and Adam's relationship, being the best person to talk to, as I didn't want to create a conflict of interest in Mel.

I nodded slowly, looking down at my dress. "He wanted to go with me to the dance."

"He can't ask himself to your dance!" Kari's wording made it sound worse than I'd thought it was. "That's really rude."

"I guess… but you know how Adam is."

She nodded sympathetically. "He really likes you though."

"I know." Which was the worst part of it. If he didn't like me so much he would be so much easier to resist, to stay away from. And I liked him too. Not in the same way, but still an awful lot; too much to want to risk hurting him – more than I already had – or losing him. Was I selfish? I hoped not.

Kari saved me from my thought by changing the subject. "Hey, I know it's late, but Mum said that dinner wouldn't be ready for a bit. You want to go for a run down to the beach with me?"

"It's too late to swim," I pointed out, trying to act responsible.

"I _know_ that, but we can wade in the shallow bits. The tide will be coming up too."

I smiled at her and stood. "Okay, get out for a minute, I need to get changed." Kari nodded and jumped up off my bed, running to the door and down the hall to her room. "And get a jumper!" I called after her. I heard her laugh as I closed my door.

Ten minutes later, Kari and me were down at the beach, ankle-deep in the cool water.

"I wonder when it'll be warm enough to go swimming again?" Kari asked me, shivering delicately as a cool breeze swept past.

I shrugged and dropped my arm around her tiny shoulders. She had the same build as me, but – not having hit puberty yet – was even thinner and more brittle-looking. Her lightly tanned skin seemed to fade with the sun, turning almost a translucent yellow in the moonlight. She almost glowed against the dark water. I wondered briefly if I looked the same.

"Not for a while." My late answer to her question rang unusually loud in the cool night air. Softly, I began pulling her out of the water and up towards the pebbly sand. "We'd better start home, Mum doesn't like us being out after dark."

Kari nodded and wriggled out from under my arm, running ahead to the edge of the road and waiting there for me. I sped up a bit when a car pulled over near her, worried that was about to be abducted or something (a fat lot of good I'd do if that was the case), but it was just her friend from school, a little boy called Tom arriving home from a hiking trip with his family. In the back of the car was Tom's sister, Delia, a friend of Mel and me. I waved at her as Tom chatted animatedly to Kari. He was telling some story about a wolf that had almost attacked him. I smiled at him, the kid got so excited about his stories and rolled my eyes at Delia.

She shook her head and motioned for me to go around to her window. Frowning, I did as she indicated – first checking that there were no cars in sight on the long, empty street – and waited as she lowered her window. "Tom's telling the truth you know, about the wolf, it was really weird!" Something about my expression must have indicated my doubt in her story, because she shook her head fiercely again. "No, seriously, Layla. There was this wolf and it jumped out of the woods at him, then it disappeared for a bit and we went to see why Tom was so upset and he was babbling about this wolf and we didn't believe him, but then it came back again! It came this close to us-" she indicted a little more than a metre with her hands "-I thought it was going to bite me!"

I was still sceptical. Delia didn't usually emphasise things, but even I knew that wild wolves didn't usually go that close to hikers. I shrugged, feigning disinterest and made to leave.

Her mum's voice stopped me. "And then you offered your hand to it, didn't you Del. Like it was a tame dog!"

I frowned at looked back at my friend. She was looking down in embarrassment, either because I hadn't believed her or because of her Mum's comment. I hoped it wasn't because of me.

To make her feel a bit better I laughed and looked back over my shoulder at her. "Gosh Del, you're all for extremes these days aren't you." She smiled and blushed more, but had a grateful expression. Someone's parents wouldn't emphasise their children's story, especially not Delia and Tom's Mum. "Come on, Kari!" I added, looking left and right before crossing the road.

Kari said goodbye to Tom and hurried after me. We both waved as they pulled back out onto the road and disappeared down the street.

I raced Kari home. She won. Said she was pretending to be running away from the wolf that Tom saw. I just laughed and cuffed her over the head. Did I really look that much like a wolf? I suggested that she get her eyes tested.

* * *

**Maybe begging will help... please please please read this story, I know its boring and has almost no relation to the series, but I think that, if you got to know it, you could get quite attached to this little fanfic. Please?**


	4. A Feeling

**No, I'm not dead - surprise! Pretty much, school is back next week and exams are in week four and then camp is after those, so I'm going to be a tad busy in the near future. This is just to assure readers that I am still writing, and to warn that I probably won't update for quite a while after posting this. Actually, all the stress will probably prompt me to write more, but it mightn't be all that good...  
So just don't expect too much for the next month. I have an excuse!**

**Disclaimer: I'm not going to bother with this. The word 'disclaimer' says it all.**

_It started out as a feeling  
Which then grew into a hope  
Which then turned into a quiet thought  
Which then turned into a quiet word_

_--Regina Spektor, The Call_

**Jason**

The night brought silence to our house. Not the traditional silence of the night, where nothing is heard besides the rustling of animals through the woods and the screeching of bats. This silence wasn't nearly as quiet and serene as that. Sure, I couldn't _hear_ anything, but the mere knowledge that all of my family was spending their time comfortably wrapped up in the presence of their loved ones… it hurt a little – that's all. To be the only one alone.

Edward and Bella were together, doing who knows what (or, more accurately – who _wants_ to know what) in their newly rebuilt cottage, hidden away in the woods. Emmett and Rose… okay, let's not even _start_ to go into _that_. Jasper and Alice had disappeared on a 'hunting trip' more than four hours ago. I think they were too tasteful to do anything _too_ extreme outside in the middle of the night, but they were definitely still appreciating each other's company, even if it was in the simplest and purest of ways. Probably watching the stars. Even Carlisle and Esme, my 'parents', had withdrawn to their room a few hours ago. Jake and Nessie's snores – soprano and… well, Jake's snores weren't exactly any specific pitch – echoed in from the room next door.

I tried to the let the sound soothe me, but it did nothing to help. It was times like this that I wished I were still human. Humans didn't have this, this terrible problem of not being able to do _anything_. It was an actual pain, stabbing at my mind. Not boredom. I was well beyond boredom by now.

Hunting was out of the question – I wasn't allowed out alone after what had almost happened on Sunday, despite my insistences that it wasn't going to happen again. Apparently, Alice had spent the entire time plagued with visions all depicting the family's ultimate demise at my hands. She'd run up to me in shocked surprise when I'd finally found the courage to show my face again. I had been _so_ close to falling over that edge… so, undeniably close…. But I _hadn't_ gone over it. I _hadn't_ committed murder. The family – the girl, her parents and the little boy, Tom – they were all alive. By some miracle I'd been able to resist.

At first my family had treated me with hostility. How could I have let myself get so close to losing control? Then there was understanding. It hadn't been my fault, it could've happened to anyone. Then self-blame. Renesmee should've gone after me; the others should've come to stop me, to help. And finally, praise. What power had come over me that I could resist the enormous pull of human blood? In the midst of my instincts, in full vampire-mode, it must have taken astronomical amount of self-restraint to hold myself back, to walk so close to them and then force myself to walk away! Yes, I'd said. It had been difficult.

I hadn't told them about the guilt. I hadn't told them about the way I'd _known_ what to do, how to hunt, despite my lack of experience. I hadn't told them what had stopped me – the boy tripping at the last moment, or the girl's words pulling me back to reality. My family didn't want to know that. They wanted to be proud. They wanted to have a perfect son – brave, fearless, solid, confident. They wanted to be like proud parents. Like _my _parents.

Secretly, somewhere deep within of the maze of thoughts that made up my mind, I was scared of that. Scared of my parents. Because the unavoidable truth was there, laid bare and obvious for anyone to pounce on in a moment. My parents had deserted me. And now, whether or not they realised it, my new family – my perfect, flawless, amazing, vampire family – was becoming just like the cruel, heartless family that they'd taken me from.

It didn't matter that this family was so much more tightly bound. They were still prone to the same weaknesses. And I seemed to have a miraculous ability to draw those weaknesses from people. Let's just say that it's a part of my charm.

I could exploit Esme's kindness, turn praise into worship. Carlisle's compassion grew and changed into a sort of forced-love. He _wanted_ to love me, he felt that he should, and that was all that inspired him to do so. Even some of Rosalie's confidence and, well, vanity had evaporated in light of my amazing feats. She'd been right there with the others, congratulating me as if I were some hero. Ha, I'd like to see that. The day that I'm crowned a hero will be a day to fear for all of those sane people in our world – I can promise that. I'm no more of a hero than anyone else. I've never wanted to be different or special. In fact, all I ever really wanted was to be the _same_.

My family had always made sure that I was different. We had had money –lots of money – at least until my father had lost his job and everything had gone wrong. We had had power and influence. We had had everything, anything that we wanted. We were special. We were loved. Ha!

And now, I still couldn't escape from that unrequited, almost unwanted love. Unwarranted adoration. Unlikely attention. Before I'd been changed, people had stared because of my money. Now they stared because of my looks. Would I never be normal?

_Not now. Not ever. _The voice inside my head was clear and precise. It was so real that I looked around to check that no one was in the room with me. Not that it was likely that I'd missed someone entering my tiny bedroom, but still. Cautiously, I closed my eyes again. Again the voice rang clearly through my head. _You'll never be normal. You're a vampire now. And before that you were rich._ Rich seemed like an understatement. We'd been rolling in money. Bathing in it.

Urgh. A shiver of dislike rolled through me. I didn't want to think of my old life. It was over now. This was my life. And I liked it.

Opening my eyes again, I considered that thought. Yes, I did like my life. I liked the extra attention, and it felt at least a little more earned than the attention that I'd gotten before. It was true. I was good-looking. Amazingly so. Enough that girls looked at me first, then the rest of my family second. I'd benefited greatly from this change. I knew that. Didn't I?

"Hey Jay, are you okay?" Jake's voice was slurred with tiredness, but his expression was concerned.

I groaned and dropped my chin forward against my chest. "Yes. I _think_ so."

He smiled sleepily at me. "You had a tough day?"

I smiled back. I'd had two tests today. Granted, they shouldn't have been too hard for me seeing as it was my second time through high school, but I hadn't exactly been a straight-A student during my first time through, so my marks were far from perfect right now. "I think I did okay in the algebra test, but you never know with this school stuff."

Jake laughed and leant against my doorframe. "Yeah, I know what you mean. It's my fourth time through and I still don't get binomial products."

"Binomey-what-what?" Jake laughed again, his usual throaty chuckle seeming much louder in the virtually silent house. My ears could pick up on some vague sounds coming from Emmet and Rose's attic room (although we couldn't call it that in front of Rose, because it sounded cheap). I really didn't want to think too deeply into those particular sounds.

"You get what I mean? I don't get how these others"-he jerked his thumb over his shoulder, indicating the other residents of our house- "can cruise through this so easily. Even Bella who's only been doing this for as long as I have does better than I do." He sounded a bit grumpy, and I smiled wider.

"But she did better than you at school to begin with, didn't she?"

An embarrassed blush tinted his cheeks. "I've never been too good at all this… _school_… stuff. I don't think I ever figured that I'd really need it."

I let my smile relax; it was starting to feel a bit overly-forced. "Well, I guess after enough time we'll both have it aced too."

Jacob rolled his eyes and pushed himself gently off the doorframe. "Here's hoping." He saluted lazily at me before turning in the opposite direction down the hallway. The rest of us tended to forget that Jake and Nessie, because they ate, also needed to go to the bathroom. It was strange addition to our already disproportionate house. A couple of odd, too-small bathrooms just shoved into any spare spaces that would otherwise have been cupboards (although Alice and Esme did have some big renovations planned).

Sighing out a long breath, I stood, scanning my expressionless room closely. A few shelves of books were all the decoration on my otherwise plain, light-blue walls. The books held little interest to me – I'd never been much of a reader – and of more interest were the small stack of CDs that I'd managed to slip out of Edward's collection (with his permission of course… well, sort of… at least he'd never told me _not_ to take them…). When I was human I'd always wanted to learn to play guitar, but had never really gotten around to learning. As a vampire though, I was already a couple of years into my self-teaching, with minimal results. Music just didn't come naturally to me like it did to some people.

Jacob was on his way back from the bathroom when he stuck his head back into my room. "Hey, because you seem bored, I though I'd offer this up to you." Effortlessly he flicked a small rectangular box across the room to me, which landed neatly in my lap. The room was small though, so I can't imagine that an accurate throw would've taken too much skill anyway. I glanced down at the box for a half-second, and then my gaze flickered back to Jake's face. He was smirking.

"I've heard solitaire is fun to play solo."

He dodged out of the way as I lobbed the packet of cards back at him, and I could hear him go into his room and close the door behind him. Nessie stirred a little as her husband (they'd gotten married a few years back, before my entry to the family) clambered back into their bed, but they both went back to sleep after a few minutes.

Scowling, I crept out into the hallway where the cards had landed on the floor. Solitaire really didn't sound like much fun. Still, there were plenty of other things to do with cards…. Having an idea, I smiled to myself as I rushed downstairs and raided the house for all the cards that we had.

In the morning, I surprised everyone with the miniature card-palace that I'd constructed - complete with turrets and flags (consisting of joker cards glued to matchsticks. Emmett rather enjoyed my 'grand finale' of burning the entire structure to the ground (Jake and I later agreed that that _had_ been really cool), but Esme didn't seem too happy about the marks on the floorboards or the smoky smell drifting through the house. Fortunately, we all had leave for school before her anger could get too far past a spark of annoyance. I made a concerted effort to kiss her on both cheeks and compliment her outfit as I left.

**Layla**

I sighed and peeped in through the cafeteria doors. For the past two months I'd been too busy practising my music (guitar and piano) to eat with everyone else, but this morning Mel had shamelessly begged me to sit with her and the others just for one lunch and take a break from my music. Sure, it was possible for me to cope without my beloved guitar for only one lunch, but I was nervous for a different reason. The famed Cullen family ate in the cafeteria – like most other normal people – but due to my musical duties and the fact that they'd only sprung into existence (as far as I was concerned) a month ago, I'd never actually been in the cafeteria when they were in there. Actually, I'd never been in the same room as any of them before. Actually, I'd never seen any of them before. Except maybe in a crowd, and if I had seen them in crowd then I'd never noticed.

It was strange having heard so much about this famed family and having to just nod as if I completely understood what everyone was talking about. Mel had informed me of the bare necessities, but I knew that those would hardly suffice.

There were nine Cullens, I was sure of that. They sat together at a table farthest from the door, all of them staring in opposite directions and hardly ever talking. I think. And they were all very pale and good-looking, all except the one that wasn't… Jacob, I think his name was. And, of course, I knew all about Jason Cullen. The _dreamy_ one. I coughed to myself. Well, it'd take more than Mel's word for me to believe that. She tended to exaggerate rather a lot when in came to describing guys.

Taking a deep breath, I squared my shoulders and walked through the double-doors. My friends sat at a table near the one of the large windows along the right-hand wall. That way Delia could watch the occasional bird and squirrel to amuse herself – she was really into animals – and the rest of us (I forced myself into the category despite the significant lapse in my presence) weren't too separate from what Mel called 'The Rest of the World'.

Keeping my head down, I made a beeline for my group's table. The cafeteria was famed for the dangers that lurked inside. I had a distinct memory of the last time I'd been here. One of Adam's jerky year eleven friends had thought that it might be good idea to trip me when I'd been holding a tray laden with two containers of pasta and a cup of water. Luckily, as I'd fallen to the ground, all my stuff had found its way to land right on the guy's crotch, so he walked around with an awkward reddish stain on his trousers for the rest of the day. And Mel wondered why I preferred my music-centre hideout.

"Hey, Layla!" I looked up to see my best friend waving at me, and rolled my eyes exaggeratedly.

Speeding up my steps, I tried to ignore all of the stares I was getting. So what if my friend was waving madly from what was commonly known as 'the outcast' table? Who cared if the same friend was calling out my name loudly? It was no reason to stare. That was rude. Yet, even as I shot glares at all the pairs of prying eyes and they hurriedly withdrew, one pair – or rather, nine pairs – refused to give out. In fact, as I shot my first glare at them, I had to remind myself not to stop walking in the middle of the packed cafeteria. For the source of the stares, the nine people behind those, bright, breath-taking eyes, where unmistakably the Cullens.

I reached my table without being tripped by anyone. My breaths panted out almost a hyperventilation point. Those were the Cullens? Yes, they were good-looking, just as Mel had said, but, at the same time, they were so much more. Good-looking was a major, _major_ understatement to describe them. Just looking at them literally took my breath away.

I fixed my unsteady gaze on Mel, opposite me. "_Good-looking_?"

Apparently she understood what (or who, as was the case) I was talking about, because she shrugged casually and hoisted a smug smile onto her face. "Well, I did tell you that you were seriously missing out by not eating here," she offered as an explanation.

Maybe I hadn't made my point obvious enough. I leant forward, emphasising my presence. "Mel," I began slowly, purposely dropping the nick-names-game and making sure that every sound that slipped from my lips was perfectly articulated. A notably difficult task considering my frazzled state. "I have a clear memory of you calling _them_" – I placed special significance on the word, just to make sure that everyone understood who I was talking about – "_good-looking_. Do you think you could explain to me what, exactly, made you use those particular words when, in reality, _they_" – I still didn't say their names – "are so much more?"

Mel laughed, her bright eyes sparkling mischievously. "Well, how would you explain them then?"

I risked a glance over my shoulder at them. Only two had looked away – seven pairs of eyes still bore into my already flushed face. I blushed more and turned back to my group, all of whom were interested now.

"Beautiful? Amazing? Spectacular?"

"Pale?" Delia suggested idly, rolling her eyes as if she'd heard it all before.

I just gaped in response. How could she be so blasé about them? They were like a bunch of actors who'd come straight from Hollywood to practice being normal high school kids for the day. They were inhumanly beautiful; it wasn't fair for that much beauty to be contained in this cramped, rundown cafeteria.

But Mel wasn't having any of Delia's dismissive attitude, and she quickly continued talking, glad to have an opportunity to voice all of her opinions.

"What I can't believe is that they all managed to end up in the same family. Imagine how good-looking all their parents must be!"

I laughed along with the others, but stole another glance at the group and frowned. They sure didn't _look_ like family. In fact, there was very little in common between them at all. I waited for the chatter at our table to calm down again before bringing this point forward. "They don't look alike. At least not much." In all honesty, at closer examination, all but one of them did look a bit alike.

One of them – the tall, tanned one – stood out from the group like a pimple on a model's flawless skin. But, putting him aside, the others were all vaguely similar. They all had smooth-looking white skin. They all had the hints of shadows under their eyes, as if their parents didn't quite like to enforce the 'into bed by eleven' rule that my mum was so strict about. And, of course, there was the fact that they were all – even the tanned one in this case – amazingly, impossibly beautiful. Despite the fact that I'd never seen any of them so much as blink, I was absolutely positive that when they moved they'd have an unconsciously graceful gait. Liquid, cat-like movements just seemed to match their startling elegance.

Mel shook her head as if I was missing something obvious. "They're adopted, dumbo. Jasper and Rosalie Hale – the blondes. Edward, Alice, Emmett and Renesmee Cullen – the brown-haired ones. I think those four are Esme's nieces and nephews or something." As far as I knew, Esme was the mother of the family. She was married to Dr Cullen who worked at the local hospital. Mel was still going. "Jacob Wolfe – the tanned one. And…" Mel sighed dramatically, "Bella and _Jason Swan_."

I nodded, remembering these two from my last glance at the family. "The red-heads."

Mel looked affronted – as if I'd insulted them. "Their hair isn't red. It's auburn."

"No, the guy's hair was definitely red." Granted, a very dark red – almost black – but red nonetheless.

Mel shook her head insistently. "No, because when you say 'red hair', people automatically think of orange hair. Jason Cullen's hair isn't orange."

"Yes," I agreed. "It's red." An amazing, thrilling, unlikely, dark shade of red. It reminded me – however morbidly – of dry blood.

Delia had turned back to look at Mel, her eyebrows raised patronisingly. "Isn't his surname Swan?"

Mel was un-phased. "Technically yes, but just to stop people from getting confused they all go by Cullen. And his hair isn't red, it's _red._" The last bit was directed at me. She'd made the correction as if she genuinely thought that there was a difference between the two words – red and _red_. I nodded as if I cared about whether or not you stressed the word.

Delia huffed out a breath and shot me a pitying look. "You are pathetic, you know. Obsessing over them like that. They're only people."

Mel groaned at this inexcusable understatement. "Only people? No way, the Cullens are more like Gods then people!"

Despite my objection to such gaudy comparisons, I couldn't help agreeing with her. They were otherworldly. Far too perfect to be mere mortals. Mere humans. Humans just didn't get those kinds of looks naturally.

I just sighed, not bothering to continue this conversation. Simple words seemed sort of frail now. Once you saw people so far beyond description with any words in any language, it was hard to maintain an interest in all the commons of society. My food seemed tasteless. The petty conversations of my friends around me faded into an indefinite buzz. It was as if my entire world had now paled in comparison to the table of angels staring at my back. Nothing I ever did or said or saw would compare to them – to their beauty, their mystery. Nothing. And yet I didn't quite care about that fact. I didn't _want_ anything else to be important.

**Jason**

We were all silent, staring at the girl. Her long, golden-brown hair – tied up loosely with a pale blue hair-tie – cascaded down to the middle of her back in gentle waves. She held herself confidently, as if she couldn't quite bring herself to care about what other people thought. Her soft blue eyes flickered between all the curious stares fixed on her, and she glared stiffly at the unwanted attention. I held my breath (not that big a feat, but still), waiting for the moment when she'd notice us, separate our group from the rest of the crowds. Bella gasped softly at the girl's expression when her eyes met ours – met _mine_. She stared for a moment, mouth slightly open in surprise, with my gaze holding hers. Then her eyes fell in shock.

Beside me, I felt Jacob look away, a small grin on his face as my words from last week – my knowledge of what the girl was – were confirmed. I felt like punching him.

We'd all smelt it – the obvious, bitter scent of a werewolf. With my family around to prevent any rash actions, I was able to gather more information about this smell than the first time it had struck me.

It wasn't as strong as Jacob's smell, not as sharp or defined. Less of that bitterness in it, as if she was less of a werewolf than he was. Yet, for me at least, it held the most inconceivably appealing fragrance. Sweet like vanilla. Fresh like the smell just after it rains. Delicate and gentle, yet with the promise of depth. The promise of a life that the girl already had.

It was entirely different to how Jacob smelt.

I made a small sound, somewhere between a sigh and a groan. Jasper shot me quick warning glance. I ignored him. It wasn't _that_ side of me that I was having trouble resisting. In fact, my thirst had never been better in check.

Nessie's gaze was the second to fall from the girl. She sighed softly and looked away, glancing at Jake who was sneaking some food from her tray and batting his hand away softly. At least she respected the necessity for silence. Maybe her and Jake had lost interest, but the other seven of us were concentrating.

The werewolf-girl had sat down, placing her tray in front of her. She spoke for a bit to her friends, and then chanced a tiny peek at us over her shoulder. Instantly she blushed and looked away again. Seven vampires' avid stares seem to do that to people.

Nessie spoke quietly, not wanting to disrupt our concentration. "You're being too obvious about this, someone is bound to notice-" A sharp hiss from her father cut her off and she looked down at her now empty tray in silence. She knew where the line was – the line that separated our existence and the existence of everything else in this world. The careful balance between the two. And she also knew that, right now, we all had to tread carefully if we didn't want to cross that line.

Alice spoke just as quietly, her words coming out so fast that anyone with less sensitive hearing wouldn't have been able to understand her. "We have to know if the werewolf knows about us. This is a necessary risk."

Nessie stayed silent, but her bottom lip jutted out in a stubborn scowl. She didn't want to have to risk so much. She'd hated moving from Forks, even though she'd spent such a comparatively short amount of time there. Then, once she'd gotten used to Shelton and my presence had forced our departure, she'd been unhappy with me for months. Maybe it was a hybrid thing. To feel more emotionally attachment than pure vampires. Or maybe it was just Nessie being stupid. She had to understand that, if leaving became necessary, then we would leave. That fact, at least, was certain

The girl spoke to the other people seated at her table for a while longer and, although I could've picked up every word of their conversation, I felt that I shouldn't. Eavesdropping was rude, especially when the eavesdropper knew that the eavesdrop-ee was talking about them. Edward chuckled dryly. Apparently my thought process was humorous. Jake looked up, wondering what was funny. He didn't like being out of the joke. It hadn't been a funny joke anyway, I felt like telling him. But I was too busy watching the girl.

It was surprisingly interesting – watching her. After only a couple of minutes she stopped talking to her friends and looked down at her tray with a forlorn expression. My eyes flicked to Edward, wondering if he knew what she was thinking. The way his eyes were concentrated on her made me sure that he could hear her. I desperately wanted to know what he was hearing, but held back any interruptions. He'd tell me later. I was sure.

It felt like it didn't take long for lunch to end. Or it might have just felt like that to me, considering my warped instinct regarding the passage of time. When you're immortal, mere hours didn't seem like very long at all. Especially when those hours are spent watching the girl who you're madly in love with. Even if she doesn't know it. Both that you're watching her and that you love her. Urgh, why was my life so stuffed up at the moment?

Edward chuckled and stood, glancing towards the cafeteria doors where people were already swarming out. I'd never really understood why everyone was so enthusiastic to leave the cafeteria and go back to class. Usually, I'd try to delay going back to class for as long as I could. But, being a Cullen now, I wasn't allowed to draw attention to myself by turning up late for any classes. At least now I didn't have to rush to be punctual. Punctuality was like another vampiric instinct – we just couldn't help it. Punctuality and the ability to hunt. I winced at the memory and ignored how Edward's eyes flickered to me.

The rest of my family stood too, following Edward's lead. It was strange having to act human in even these small ways. The knowledge that we all could have run out the doors and be halfway to our lockers in just the time it took for normal a human to stand was almost funny. Rose ran her hands through her hair, and I couldn't be sure whether that was a human act or not. Alice pretended to stretch. Jasper scratched his nose. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, trying to remember how it felt to do this as a human. Was it relieving? Or did humans just do it out of habit? It annoyed me that I didn't know.

Nessie and Jake had already started for the door, not as likely to be noticed by the crowds as we were. They were lucky, blending in. It was if vampires gave off a vibe that said 'fear me'. Apparently werewolves and hybrids had no such vibe. No one glanced twice at them as they joined in with the crowd, although I could see that both of them were careful not to let their skin brush against anyone. That might have made them be noticed.

The rest of us had to walk even slower than normal human speed to the doors to avoid being caught up in the slowly disappearing crowd. Alice jogged at human speed in among the tables, laughing her wind-chime laugh and smiling widely. Jasper chased her a little, but couldn't really get himself excited about chasing her so slowly. Maybe this afternoon we'd go out and do some proper running. With summer coming up there might be storm sometime soon, so maybe we could play baseball then. Until then we'd have to condemn ourselves to moving at human speed, I guess.

School went on as normal for the rest of the day. Once the last bell had gone, I wandered outside and waited beside my car. Peering up at the sky, I could see that my hopes for a storm weren't likely to come true. The rain had stopped altogether, and I could see hints of blue sky in the distance. Tomorrow it would be sunny. Well, at least that meant no school for a while.

Bella was the next to get out of class and, as she passed my car on the way to Edward's, she told me that all of year ten was being held in. Great. So that meant that Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett were all going to take a while to come out. Nessie and Jacob came next, and I told them (rather grumpily) to get a lift with Edward and Bella. Edward passed me next, shooting me a grin before disappearing. I heard them leave soon after, and finally opened my door and got into my own car.

It was only half an hour after the bell had gone and already the car park was almost empty. Taking advantage of the uncharacteristically dry weather, I opened up the top of my car and lay back in my seat. The dizzying smell of the light brown leather covers was lost in the cool afternoon air. I lay like this for a while longer, trying to force myself to relax.

Although no rain was in sight, I kept getting worried that it would start raining again and I wouldn't get the top back up in time and all of the inside would get wet. In the end, after stubbornly ignoring the button that would make the roof come out for at least five minutes, I gave up and pushed the button. It wasn't worth risking getting my car's interior wet just to prove that I had self-control. Clearly I'd already proved that with the whole 'not killing the family' thing.

Alice turned up with the others when they were finally let out and I was quick to hurry us all off home. As usual, a few people stared at my car as we waited at the traffic lights to get out of town, but I ignored their stares.

"I don't think that your car is any less noticeable than mine," Alice complained as I turned into the thin, winding lane that led to our house.

I rolled my eyes. This was her favourite argument. "Your car is bright yellow." In my rear-view mirror I could see Jasper smile slightly. Alice, sitting next to me, either ignored this or didn't see.

"Your car is bright red."

I was affronted and looked at her incredulously. "It's not_ bright red_." Usually I kept my position in this family fairly neutral. Edward, Jacob and Nessie were probably the only three that I counted as friends. Jasper, Alice and Bella were nice enough, but I certainly wasn't close with any of them. Emmett didn't seem to like me much – I think he resented the fact that I'd gotten a power that allowed me to beat him in wrestles. Edward assured me that Rosalie didn't like anyone, so that was normal. And, for me, Carlisle and Esme were more like parents than friends. I loved them, but could never really confide in them. Maybe I would open up a bit more in time, but maybe I wouldn't.

Anyway. As neutral as I tried to be, when someone insulted my car, I was liable to get annoyed. I was proud of my car for one very key reason: it had been mine before I'd been changed. And, even though it was getting a little old now, Rosalie had been kind enough to keep it in a good condition, so it persisted as the only reminder left of my old life. Sure, I'd resented that life and been glad to leave it, but still it _had_ happened, and the memories from those times – as unpleasant as some were – were a part of who I was. And my car was a part of those memories.

Alice rolled her eyes and opened her door, skipping up the immaculately tiled path to the porch that ran along the front of the house. The others got out too and I drove around the back to park my car in the garage. Seeing as the sun was going to be out for the next few days, I wasn't going to need my car for a while.

By the time I finished with and had started across the back lawn to go inside, Emmett and Jasper were on their way outside, readying themselves for their fight. As the first few boulder-shattering noises drifted up to my bedroom I went over to the window and watched them from my room, wincing and laughing along with the rest of my family. Eventually I convinced them to let me fight too and, just to annoy Emmett, transformed into a bear in preparation. Of course, neither of them had been able to beat me, and Emmet had left muttering about how he knew there'd been a good reason why I hadn't been allowed to join in to begin with.

After that, Edward had offered to join Jasper's side and see if the two of them could take me on. We'd found out a while ago that, when I transformed into an animal, Edward's power was lessened. He could still 'hear' that I _had_ a mind, but it was difficult for him to translate particular thoughts into anything that made sense. Apparently animals' minds worked differently to the minds of people. We had a theory that, because werewolves were still technically people, their minds were okay to read. But, in the same way that Edward couldn't read the mind of an actual bear, he couldn't read the 'bear part' of my mind. Which meant that the more I gave in to animal instincts and forced my vampire-mind to go blank, the harder it was for Edward to read what I was thinking.

Jasper and Edward won against me when I was bear, but they had no hope against an elephant. There are just some things that even two well-trained vampires cannot defeat, and it turns out that a vampire-elephant is one of those things. Emmett got a bit of a laugh out of the last fight ending with me – as an elephant – pointing both tusks threateningly at Edward while my foot was poised over Jasper to squash him if he tried to move, but I noticed that he didn't offer to help his brothers.

Later on, once I'd shifted back to a human-vampire, Emmet voiced his theory of how easy it would be for us to beat the Volturi now with me on their side (apparently vampiric-elephants are useful). I personally couldn't see it making a difference, but stayed quiet and let him explore his theory. We spent a lot of the night still talking about battling the Volturi, but we all knew that we were joking around. I may have never met the ruler of the vampire-world, but just knowing the stories of some of the things that they'd done was enough to scare me. I was sure that my life could be perfectly content even if I never ended up meeting Aro, Caius and Marcus.

Eventually Nessie and Jake cleared off to bed, and Bella and Edward also excused themselves. Rosalie chatted to me about my car for a bit as she tried to explain the art of retuning an engine, but it was clear from the beginning that I wasn't really interested. Emmet offered to verse me in a game of chess. I declined – I'd never been good at it. As Emmett and Jasper played chess and Rosalie disappeared in to the garage to find the source of a whining sound that we'd heard in my car on the way home from school, Alice sat beside me on the couch with her eyes closed, looking into my future for the werewolf girl. Every so often she'd wince as her vision disappeared due to girl's appearance, but not often enough for me to get my hopes up. I didn't need Alice to tell me that my life was going to be failure. I'd known that for years before I'd been changed.

Shooting me a sympathetic look at what she'd seen of my bleak future, Alice had left a bit after 4:00am, Jasper following soon after. Emmet and me shared a few bits of conversation and checked what was on TV, but when nothing of interest was found he left to find Rosalie.

I was left alone on the couch, watching some religious TV show with the sound muted, but not really seeing the people on the screen.

I couldn't see anything else now. Only the girl. I didn't even know her name. The hopelessness of my situation crashed down on me, making my eyes sting uncomfortably. If I'd been human I would've been crying, but now nothing could happen to express the pain I was in. I just had to feel it, to endure it seeping through every inch of my being, drowning me in its grief. The situation was impossible. I couldn't be with a werewolf. _Couldn't_. Especially not if she had imprinted on someone else. And even she hadn't imprinted yet, one day she would.

Even if the whole thing magically worked itself out in my favour and I ended up getting the girl. Even if everything went perfectly, there was always the risk that she'd find someone else. Someone who she was completely unable to resist. I'd seen Jacob and Nessie, the way he was so desperately, so utterly and wholly devoted to her. She was first in his world and everything else was second. And I knew, deep down, that if my werewolf-girl imprinted that I'd let her go. Because, more than I wanted to be with her, more than anything else that I wanted in the world, I wanted her to be happy.

Even if that happiness couldn't be found with me.

It was easy to understand now why Bella had always called Edward a masochist. Of course he'd been able to do it, to resist the pull of her blood for so long. It was impossible _not_ to resist. I frowned at that thought. If the girl was a werewolf then there shouldn't have been any difficulty for me in resisting her scent, and yet… I let my mind drift back to the memory of the first time I'd seen her, only a week ago, and then to how she'd smelt today… there had been some human blood in her. Some part of me had still thirsted for her blood, no matter how potent the scent of werewolf had been in it.

Why had she still smelt part human? Did it mean that she _was _part human? Was that even possible?

The questions spilled through my head as I searched for answers. From what I knew, if a werewolf and a human had a child, the child was still a werewolf. But maybe if the gene was diluted enough, if enough other genes had replaced it… it still didn't make sense. As far as I knew, no amount of breeding with non-werewolves could diminish the gene. Then again, my knowledge of werewolves was limited. I'd have to ask Jake about it in the morning.

Because maybe – if the girl was only part werewolf – I might just be able to be with her. The others knew what it felt like – that irresistible pull towards the person who you fall in love with – so maybe, if she really wasn't a danger to us, the concept of me being with her wasn't so distant. So unlikely.

I knew it was wrong to get my hopes up, to make myself optimistic about this, but it was impossible not to. My life so far – both as human and as a vampire – hadn't been great, but at the same time it could've been worse. Yet, now that I could see the possibility of a happiness that I'd never dared to dreamed of finding… I _had_ to hope. I _had_ to be optimistic. Because, deep down, I knew that if I didn't get this girl, then my life would end. Literally. And I knew that the only way to guarantee my death would be to go to the Volturi. If I annoyed them or threatened, they would be quick to dispose of me.

Emmett's idea from earlier came back to me. Would I be able to defeat the Volturi single-handed? The idea scared me, despite its unlikely-ness. What if nothing could kill me because of my power? I shook my head to myself. There was no way that I could defeat all of the Volturi on my own. But maybe, just for my family's sake, I could take a few of them down with me when I went to them.

"No." I said the word out loud, willing my mind to stop thinking, just for a moment. I _wasn't_ going to stuff this up. I _wasn't_ going to die. I'd already been through enough pain and suffering in my life to earn a bit of an easy streak, a bit of good luck. Besides, it'd be stupid to get myself down over something that hadn't even happened.

The future could change. I knew that. The things that Alice could see happening were so objective and uncertain, anything could make them shift. A butterfly fluttering its wings in China could cause a hurricane in America. The smallest things could make the biggest difference. So, now all I had to do now was to work out what small things I needed to do, to make the right difference. To make the future right.

**Layla**

I fell asleep that night, my head buried in my pillow to try and erase the thoughts from my mind. One face refused to disappear; one feeling refused to be quashed by my tiredness.

Dark, auburn hair, ruffled casually. Deep, toffee-coloured eyes, cautious and unsure. Perfect features arranged on flawless, snow-white skin.

And a burning desire washing through me – an absolute, unquestionable _need_ to be with this person.

I fell into an uncomfortable sleep with Jason Cullen on my mind.

* * *

* * *


	5. Matter Of Time

**I'm sorry that it's been so long since I've updated, but like I said exams and camp and then getting exam results back and coming to terms with them has been pretty hectic. So, despite the fact that it's been an entire term since I last posted, I am still writing this and there is still plenty to go. But, my faithful unofficial beta is on holidays until christmas, so I can't really do much until she's back. Sorry in advance that there will be more delays, but by next month I should be back to regular posting, and this story might even be done before school goes back next year!**

**Disclaimer: Twilight ain't mine. I wouldn't have let such a comparitively good book be decreased to such a shockingly bad movie (in my opinion, at least)**

_Baby it's just a matter of time  
If we can take it slow everything will be alright  
Let it flow, and I know that we'll find  
It's just a matter of time_

_--Matter Of Time, Dream Street_

**Layla**

"What would you do if one day Miss Baker came into class and she'd gotten a sex-change?" I tried not to react to Mel's whisper, but couldn't hold back a snort of laughter. Trying to turn it into a cough, I forced my expression to stay neutral as our history teacher turned away from the whiteboard to scowl at me.

"Sorry," I muttered, picking up the pen that I'd knocked off my desk and going back to my work.

There were a few minutes of quiet as everyone in the class scribbled notes off the whiteboard, squinting to try and decipher Miss Baker's messy scrawl. When I'd finished writing I lounged back in my seat and ignored Mel's raised eyebrows waiting for an answer to her question. I was too busy puzzling over why she'd asked a stupid question like that anyway to care about actually answering it.

The bell rang and class ended, everyone jumping from their seats as if they'd been sitting on porcupines. I took a little longer to pack up all my books neatly, and by the time I reached the door Mel was tapping her foot in impatience.

"So, what would you do if Miss Baker got a sex-change?" She repeated, acting as a battering ram for me as she shoved people out of our way and cleared a path through the crowd.

"Take a shortcut through the music corridor," I suggested, pushing forward to walk beside her and heading towards the deserted hallway on our left. Mel took my advice and made it past a few more people and into the shortcut. In truth, neither of us were sure if it really was a shorter route to go via the music corridor than to take the main hallway, but it sure was much more pleasant than being stuck in the crowd.

"Miss Baker? Sex-change? Seriously, what would you do?" Mel pressed, a toothy grin on her face.

I shook my head. "I have no idea what I'd do. Why does it matter?"

Mel shrugged, slowing down as I stopped outside my usual rehearsal room and peered in through the small glass window on the door. I heard her steps coming back towards me before she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me the rest of the way down the corridor. I whimpered in protest but didn't try to pull away. There was no way that I could win that one.

"You are _not_ spending _one_ more lunchtime locked up in that little room with your pathetic instruments." I knew Mel was joking, but the comment still hurt a bit. I personally had a lot of respect for my piano and guitar. "Besides, we have a dance-committee meeting this lunch, and you promised that you'd come."

I groaned and dug my heels into the faded carpet, forcing Mel to stop. She turned to look at me, her expression apprehensive.

"There is no way that I'm going to the dance-committee meeting."

"Please! You said you'd come!"

My scepticism must have registered on my face, because Mel nodded seriously.

"I dared you to come and you said 'no way' and then I said I'd pay you if you came and you said 'yes'."

I stayed silent, pursing my lips. She was right of course. But now that the time had come I was much less enthusiastic for the five dollars that she'd offered than I had been on the weekend. Plus, I now realised that going to the meeting would mean that I'd have to go to the cafeteria. And I _really_ didn't want to go there.

"What if I go next week?" I offered, starting to walk again. After all, the meeting was only in the cafeteria today because the hall was closed for some drama thing, so next week, when the drama stuff was over, the meetings would be back in the hall and if all went to plan I'd never have to set foot in the cafeteria again.

"You won't do it, you'll just keep on delaying until there are no more meetings." Mel's whining voice was getting on my nerves, and the fact that she was right again didn't help my fragile mental state.

"No I won't," I half-lied. Odds are that I would chicken out of the meeting again, but, in all honesty, who wouldn't go to great lengths to miss a dance-committee meeting?

"Yes you will. You always do. You always say that you're going to do something or be somewhere and then forget about it or just don't bother."

I would've loved to say that she was wrong. Only she wasn't, and I hated lying to my best friend. Instead I looked down and focussed on speeding up my steps, power walking to the end of the corridor and then stopping to wait for Mel.

"Please will you come, just this once? I promise never to bug you about it again?"

I bit my lip. I hated it when Mel begged with me. If I didn't agree she'd put me on a whole long guilt trip, and if that didn't work she'd stop talking to me. As convenient as it sometimes was not to be talking to Mel – what with exams coming up and the 'avoiding Adam' thing – after being best friends with her for eleven years, I sort of felt a bit attached to her now.

In my peripheral vision I could see her giving me puppy-dog eyes, and I'm a real sucker for them too. I groaned and slapped her face lightly to make her look away.

"Fine, I'll go! But I'll hate it the entire time!" My assurance was barely heard by Mel who was already hugging me after my first sentence.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! I'll meet you there once you've got your lunch, okay?"

I gaped at my friend as she rushed off ahead of me, going straight to the cafeteria. Sighing, I hoisted my books up on my hip and walked alone to my locker, having to wait for a good few minutes as the girl whose locker was under mine organised her books and ruffled through her bag for her lunch. Thankfully, I was in no rush, and I had to stop myself calling after the girl and asking if she didn't want to spend a bit longer stuffing around so that I could delay entering the cafeteria.

My mind wandered as I shoved my books into my locker, not bothering to fish out my lunch. I suddenly wasn't hungry anymore. Not now that I had to go to the cafeteria.

Sure, it sounds like an innocent enough place. Aside from the occasional food fight and a few shouting matches that sometimes break out, usually our cafeteria is alright to be in, and as long as you don't move from your bench for all of lunch its easy enough to not get tripped and not to embarrass yourself too badly. But, ever since last Monday when I'd walked into that room and laid eyes on the famous Cullens, I'd been too terrified to go anywhere near them.

The main reason was because I was scared of them. There was a quiet menace behind their pale skin and bright eyes – I knew that I wasn't the only one to sense that danger. Then there was the way that they'd all stared at me the moment I'd walked in. It was if they'd had some expectation, something that I was supposed to do or say. Instead I'd just blushed and stumbled my way to my table; that can't have been the right thing to do. And, of course, there was the slightly annoying, slightly fascinating way in which Jason Cullen's face couldn't seem to leave my mind. I thought of him constantly, all day he was just there in the back of my mind, lingering in the background until I wasn't busy and could go back to thinking about him properly. His eyes had by far been the most curious, the most demanding. He'd wanted _something _from me when he'd met my gaze so confidently – I was sure of it.

Was it weird that that scared me?

It wasn't as if I knew anything about these people, this family. That fact alone meant that they couldn't have done anything remotely bad, at least while they'd been living here – in a town this size any criminal was almost instantaneously made a celebrity. Or the opposite, depending on their crime. Either way, even someone as below the radar as me would've heard something.

So that ruled out my dangerous theory. Apparently. Yet, regardless of how un-dangerous all of my logic assured me that the Cullens were, a shiver still wracked through my body at just the thought of them.

Taking a deep breath, I backed away from my locker a step, trying to prevent my shaking hands from tearing anything by accident. If all I had to do was _think_ of these people and I was completely wrecked, how could I possibly be in the same room as them again? I closed my eyes and backed up a bit more. The corridors were empty now – everyone had rushed off to get a good able in the cafeteria – so I didn't feel self-conscious as I stood against the wall opposite my locker, my eyes closed and my breaths slowing down.

This was stupid – the rational side of my brain knew that – but I couldn't stop it. There was no way that I'd be able to disguise this type of reaction and pass it off as something else. Holding it in was out of the question. So how, exactly, was I supposed to sit in the cafeteria surrounded by my peers for an entire hour? I groaned and lifted my hand to my face, wishing I could block out the rest of the world for just a minute longer. Just until I had control of myself again.

A light cough made me drop my hand and open my eyes. The moment I saw the person before me I wished I hadn't moved, or better still that I'd gone straight to the cafeteria with Mel and avoided this entire situation all together. It would've been far better to let them think I was dead or insane than to have them see me like this.

It was one of the Cullens. The perfect articulation and almost musical sound couldn't have comes from anyone less than their elite level of flawlessness.

"Are you okay?"

The girl's soft voice was comforting, with none of the suppressed danger that I'd seen in her siblings' golden eyes yesterday. On the contrary, this girl's eyes were a deep chocolate brown, soft and friendly. I trembled involuntarily but that was all.

"I-I'm fine." My tone was surer than I'd expected, barely wavering.

The girl still looked worried, and cautiously she took a tiny step closer to me. "Are you sure?" The way she purposely distanced herself from me was surprising. Most people seem to think that when someone needs to be comforted they want to be crowded around and hugged and touched. Personally I hate that, it usually makes me freak out even more, so this girl's reluctance to come much closer suited me just fine.

Not trusting my voice to be so steady the second time, I confined myself to a simple nod, and then quickly crossed the width of the hallway back to my locker. Really, it was a pretty embarrassing situation to be caught in, especially by one of very people who'd caused my miniature breakdown.

I tidied up my locker a bit, mostly pulling stuff out then shoving it back in place again, distracting myself until the girl left, but it didn't look like she was quite done with our conversation yet. Once I'd rearranged everything possible to rearrange I closed my locker door and turned to go to the cafeteria, expecting the girl to disappear in the other direction.

"I'm Nessie, by the way. Nessie Cullen." The girl was at my side, keeping up easily with my rushing steps.

"Bond. James Bond."

Nessie's laugh was high-pitched and sounded painfully like tinkling bells. It wasn't fair that one person could be so perfect, let alone an entire family of complete and utter perfection.

"Okay, I had that one coming, I suppose," she admitted, still giggling a little.

"Sorry, I can't resist bad jokes. My name's Layla."

Nessie shot a sideways look at me, her expression curious. "Layla Brooks? The musician?"

It was my turn to laugh now. I was hardly a professional. "Kind of," I said sheepishly. "I'm not exactly a professional though."

"Maybe not yet, but I'll bet you're pretty good. All the music teachers talk about you."

As if I hadn't embarrassed myself enough in front of this girl. "They do? Urgh, now I feel like even more of an idiot than usual."

She laughed again. I had to keep myself from cringing. It just wasn't _natural_, beauty like that.

We reached the cafeteria doors and I paused, unwilling to cross that threshold again. From inside, the usual babble echoed out. Did I really want to be a part of that? Would it really be so bad to just slip away, to go and practice my instruments? I was sure that I could get Mel to forgive me, even if it took a lot of bribes and even more apologies.

Nessie was already inside when she noticed that I wasn't following her anymore. She turned to look at me questioningly.

"Are you not hungry?"

I shook my head quickly and my stomach grumbled. I now wished that I'd brought my lunch with me. Sure, it was only a couple of sandwiches, but now that my freak out was over I was getting hungry again.

"Your friends are in there, same table as usual. Did you guys get into a fight?"

I found it a little creepy that she knew which table my friends sat at, but her and all of her family had been staring at me for all of lunch only a week ago, so it wouldn't be too hard to remember.

"No," I mumbled, secretly hoping that my friends weren't angry with me. Did they think that it was because of them that I hadn't gone back to the cafeteria since last Monday? Outside of school the only friend I really saw was Mel. Did Delia and the rest think I was dumping them? I sure hoped not. I made a mental note to talk to them all somehow. Maybe an email…

"If you want you can sit with me. I'm sure my family wouldn't mind."

I'm not quite sure if my eyes boggled out of my head or not. They sure felt like they did, but Nessie didn't run away screaming, so they mustn't have. Apparently I did react in some way though, because she instantly went into reverse.

"I only mean if you want to. I don't want to force you to or anything. You just seemed sort of… adverse… to going in any further than this."

I forced a laugh. My acting skills really needed some fine-tuning. "No, not adverse, just wary. You never know what you'll encounter in a high school cafeteria." My joke was lame, but Nessie smiled and walked a little further into the large room. This time I followed, doing my best to ignore the stares.

Unable to endure my relative unawareness as Nessie weaved confidently through the tables, I snuck a glance up from under my eyelashes. It surprised when I discovered that no one was actually staring at me. In fact, life was going on just a usual, and no one had noticed my entrance.

I muttered something incoherent about joining Mel – not wanting to speak up too much in case the rest of the Cullens might feel as if they had to talk to me just because one of their siblings had walked with me to the cafeteria – and slipped away from Nessie. Mel smiled at me as I hurried over to her table and slid onto the bench beside her.

"Well, you took your time," she accused, but I could tell that she was happy that I'd even bothered to turn up.

I hoisted a fake smile onto my face, already preparing myself for another hour of pretending that Jason Cullen wasn't a part of my every thought. "My locker was _so_ messy, I just _had_ to tidy it up!"

The rest of the dance-committee probably didn't understand the parody of my words – then again I don't suppose Stalin understood what Animal Farm was about – but I got a badly suppressed giggle from Mel beside me so it was worth it.

"Okay girls, the dance is coming up really quickly now, and we still need to decide some of the basics." The head of the dance-committee, a girl in my year with bleached blonde hair and fake tanned legs whose name I didn't know and didn't want to know, announced this point as if some of the long words (like 'decide' and 'coming') were very difficult to say and even more difficult to grasp the meaning of.

I glanced at Mel who shrugged in a 'you could do worse' way. I rolled my eyes and let myself zone out as the meeting droned on.

**Jason**

"I talked to her."

I didn't look at Nessie as she sat down and made this announcement to our table. According to Carlisle, 'the risks of associating with werewolves outweighed the benefits' right now so, as per my rules, I hadn't gone near the girl for a week. Not that avoiding her helped. Not being near her didn't stop me thinking about her. Dreaming about her…

Edward cringed visibly and Emmett shot a grin at me. "Good going Jay. Keep up those kinds of thought and you could probably lose your baby-sitter again by this afternoon."

I just frowned and ignored him. Emmett thought that everything was a joke. He didn't seem to realise that at some point life just isn't funny anymore. And I'd reached that point quite a while back, in case he hadn't noticed.

"I thought Layla seemed nice, and I hardly noticed the smell, even when I was that close."

"But you're hardly a reliable source," Alice put in. "You're probably almost immune to the smell now from being around it so often."

"If that was true we'd all be immune to it," Rosalie muttered under her breath. For the first time in more than a week I almost smiled.

Nessie shrugged and settled back in her seat. Jacob's arm curled around her shoulders and I briefly wondered how they could possibly handle the smell of each other. Jake was one of my closest friends, but I still couldn't stand downwind of him. Then I realised that, in the unlikely situation that I managed to end up with my werewolf-girl, she'd smell exactly the same.

Edward shook his head fractionally, but I couldn't be sure if it was in response to my thoughts or someone else's.

"Your werewolf smelt to different to him" – Edward gestured vaguely towards Jake – "so there must have been something different about her."

Jasper glanced at the girl. She'd settled down at different table to last time, today huddled in with a bunch of girls from our year. They weren't exactly the kind of people I'd have chosen for her to hang out with, but her intelligence level was already established, and I knew that stupidity wasn't highly contagious. After all, I was still as intelligent as ever, and I lived with Emmett and Rosalie.

Edward smirked to himself.

"Could she not be fully werewolf yet?"

I looked up at Jasper's suggestion as his gaze shifted to the girl for another half-second. I wasn't the only one paying attention and although he usually tried to avoid the spotlight he seemed happy enough to be our main focus now.

Jake was the first one to voice what we were all thinking. Or at least I think we were all thinking it. Edward and Alice were probably already a few steps ahead of the rest of us though.

"What do you mean?"

Jasper shrugged as if it were obvious. Clearly this guy needed to get used to the presence of non-mind-readers and future-seers. "Well, what about during that time when the werewolf gene has been activated, but hasn't yet taken control of you."

Bella seemed to be catching on too now, because she interrupted Jasper to give us her two cents. "Like that night when we went to the movies, Jake. With Mike." Jake seemed to remember, and I had a vague memory of the story about the evening before Jake had first phased. "I'll bet that you would've smelt different then, when you hadn't phased yet but you had every other symptom of being a werewolf." None of us had to worry about being overheard. All of our voices were too soft and too fast for any human eavesdroppers to have any hope of hearing.

Nessie suddenly caught on to Jasper's theory as well. "The warm skin and the quick healing. The growth spurts, the instincts. All of that is supposed to come on before the actual phasing."

I couldn't help myself. "What sort of stuff do you _talk_ about when you're alone? The symptoms of being a werewolf?" In truth, this had always been a curiosity of mine. You'd think that after a bit over fourteen years of being with each other non-stop you'd start running out of stuff to talk about. Yet, I knew for a fact that Jake and Nessie still had late-nights chats quite often. Soundproofing isn't very effective to vampires, but I had the manners to try and tune out the actual words from the room next door to mine, even if the occasional murmur still reached me.

I got another laugh from Emmett, but that was hardly an achievement. Rosalie seemed pretty satisfied with my joke though – I think she took it as a personal insult that a child raised by her had fallen in love with a werewolf. I thought that that said a lot about her child-rearing skills. Then again, exactly the same thing had happened to me, so I could hardly talk.

Nessie kept her usual perfect composure as she replied to my snipe. "Among other topics – yes. And I'll bet you don't know _half _the things that that early growth-spurt brought on."

Jacob grinned. I considered eating some of the cafeteria food just so that I could throw it up again.

"I think we can reach a general consensus that we don't need that type of information," I said, speaking for everyone's sakes. Alice, Jasper and Rosalie nodded in agreement. The other three seemed too busy looking disgusted (Edward and Bella – the lucky parents) or virtually pissing themself laughing (Emmett – of course) to take a side.

Rosalie rolled her eyes at Emmet beside her and ignored him as she turned to Alice and Jasper. "I am _so_ bored with school right now. I'm leaving early. And I haven't been hunting in a while, so I might go do that." Her tone was so confident and matter-of-fact that no one challenged her. Standing and taking a few steps away from our table in one swift, fluid motion, Rosalie gave those of us who were paying attention to her a little unenthusiastic wave and slowly wandered away, motioning for Emmett to follow her when he finally recovered from his laughing fit. He got up quickly and ran after her, catching her just at the cafeteria door. Alice narrowed her eyes at their backs but said nothing, although I did notice her glance up at Jasper who, apparently knowing what she thinking, shrugged. Why was I never allowed into those little conversations?

Our table then fell into its usual silence, and I let my gaze crawl back to my werewolf-girl, still looking uncomfortable in the happily chatting group she was sitting with. Trying to be subtle about it, her eyes would flicker every so often to her friends at a nearby table, an obvious longing in her light blue eyes. Selfishly, I wished that she would go to sit with her friends at their table by the window. I spent a few minutes trying to convince myself that this desire was solely out of concern for the girl – the people she was with didn't exactly have the best reputation – but I wasn't very convincing, even to myself. In truth, I wanted to see her walk again. To see her smile and to hear her voice.

Of course, as good as my hearing was, I couldn't focus enough to pick out her frail voice from the magnitude of noise coming from everyone else in the room. But I thought that if maybe she were a little closer – like at the table with her friends – I might be able to hear her properly. I'd heard her last time she's sat there. And having her in my sight would be nice too. After all, I didn't have x-ray vision, and couldn't see through all of the people milling around between her and me.

As irrational as I knew it was, I still felt an inescapable pull towards the girl, so strong and solid that I was finding it increasingly hard to resist. It wasn't like I wanted to do anything creepy or weird – kissing her would be nice, but didn't really feel necessary – I just wanted to _be _with her.

Sitting beside her at lunch, talking and laughing with her friends. Making her smile and seeing the brightness of her soft blue eyes. Waiting for her at her locker and walking her to class. All of the normal things that people do. Just to be friends would be enough.

Suddenly I realised how Jacob had been able to love Renesmee so completely, even when she'd been a child. Originally, when the others had first explained Jake and Nessie to me, I'd thought it was all a bit gross – a teenager who could pass for someone in their mid-twenties falling in love with a baby? It was gross. But now I think I could understand what Jake had felt.

I still loved the werewolf-girl, still in that irrational, inescapable, unfathomable way, but it wasn't in the traditional sense. Sure, there was definitely a part of me still burning with my immortalized sixteen year-old hormones, but that part was surprisingly easy to ignore. The bigger part of me, the part that took all my efforts to reign in, was the part that just desired for her presence. It didn't matter why she was with me. It didn't matter whether or not she liked me. I just needed her to be _there_. To _exist_. And, for as long as she was a part of my world and a part of my life, I would be fine. I would do what Jacob did. I would _wait_.

Jake had waited seven years for Nessie, but I knew that he would've waited a thousand years as long as he'd gotten her in the end. Lucky for him, Jake hadn't had to wait nearly as long as he was willing to; and Nessie hadn't waited at all – she'd been born into a perfect, loving relationship. Yet, for both of them, there had always been the guarantee that, after the long wait, they'd end up together. That fact was as certain as the sky being blue. So what would they have done if there hadn't been a guarantee? Would Jake have waited? Would he have been able to live with the Cullens for seven years, just waiting to find out if his imprint loved him?

Yes, he would've. That was the thing with imprinting – and with whatever it is that happens to vampires – you can't stop it, no matter how much you want to. But what if, after all of Jacob's waiting, Nessie had felt nothing? What if she'd fallen in love with someone completely different?

"Paris falls."

I looked up from the girl, my gaze resting instead on Edward. "What?"

His face was serious but I could see a hint of sadness in his eyes. "'Paris falls'."

I frowned. "What does that mean?"

"It happens in Romeo and Juliet." Bella's tone was concerned, probably for Edward, as if this topic was rather sensitive with him.

I chuckled dryly. "I've never studied 'Romeo and Juliet'. Shelton High School was more into 'Macbeth'."

Bella's brow furrowed in disapproval. "How could you not have read 'Romeo and Juliet'?"

I shrugged. "Does it matter? I didn't think that was actually the point of this conversation."

I smirked at Bella's offended expression. I'd most likely start feeling guilty about being rude to her later this afternoon, or maybe tonight when I had nothing better to do than wallow in my regrets, so I figured that an apology could be delayed until then. Besides, my mood wasn't exactly angelic at the moment. There had better be a very good reason for some Shakespeare quote disrupting my thoughts.

"Do you know the basic plotline?" Edward asked, breaking up Bella's and my 'potential fight' before it could escalate.

I nodded in silence, forcing myself not to say anything rude to Bella. It would just mean an extra apology later.

"Well, Paris was the man who Juliet's family intended for her to marry instead of Romeo."

"Oh." I was silent as I tried to link this information to the quote. Finding no apparent connection, I put on a puzzled expression. "So?"

"So, at the end of the play, Paris and Romeo end up fighting," Bella's tone was icy.

"Let me guess: Romeo wins."

"Yes. And the line when Romeo defeats Paris is 'Paris falls'."

This so called 'amazing connection' still eluded me. "So?"

Edward motioned for Bella to be silent. Her voice had risen quite a bit in her annoyance and it was becoming a security risk. At least I think that was his excuse. Personally, I would've shushed her just because she was annoying me.

Turning to me, Edward explained slowly, using short and simple words as if I were two years old. "Paris is the extra character, if you like. You never see his side of the play or his version of events. Despite being the first one to fall in love with Juliet, he is forgotten once Romeo arrives. In the end he's killed. 'Paris falls'. The extra character has no use, so dies off."

I made the connection then. "Oh!"

Edward rolled his eyes and turned away from me, back to Bella. I briefly wondered who the Paris in their relationship was. Who was the poor guy who just conveniently disappeared at the end for them?

But I guess that explained the what-if-Nessie-hadn't-loved-Jake situation. In that one I knew who Paris was. Would he have fallen, just like the Paris in Shakespeare's famous play?

It wasn't hard to answer that question.

Yes, he would've.

Because no matter what variation of the play you read, no matter how many times it's adapted or changed, that scene will always stay the same. Paris will always fall. Romeo will always get the girl. Even if they all die in the end anyway.

So, if Nessie hadn't loved him, Jake would've died. He would've killed himself if Nessie's Romeo didn't kill him. That didn't exactly give me a whole lot of hope regarding my own situation.

The bell rang and I was vaguely aware of movement around me. My mind was too busy swirling with this new information to notice more than that. An array of smells drifted in range, each holding a varying amount of temptation. The burning in my throat didn't relieve me from my thoughts. If someone had tripped and broken their neck on one of the benches and all of the blood in their body had flown out onto the cafeteria floor I don't think I'd have reacted. I was too shocked. Too disgusted by the conclusion that my thoughts had reached.

My future was no longer in my hands, it seemed.

All that mattered now was that I find one answer – the one answer that would choose my fate.

Who was I? Was I Romeo or was I Paris?

Did the werewolf-girl know that she now held my life in her hands?

Somehow, I doubted it.

**Layla**

My last class of the day seemed to drag on for hours. The fact that Mel kept shoving little notes asking for my opinion on whatever topics were discussed at the dance committee meeting during lunch onto my desk didn't help. I wanted to write back a big, bold: **I DON'T CARE!!!!! **But I didn't because that would've been rude.

Luckily, part-way through the lesson the teacher set us a long, boring essay to write, so I busied myself with that and pretended not to notice Mel's pointed coughs and the new scraps of paper covered in writing that kept appearing on my desk. Not-so-luckily, the teacher _did_ notice the notes that Mel had been passing and she kept us both in for an extra ten minutes. I, personally, didn't think it was very fair at all that I'd been kept in – _I_ hadn't been passing notes – of course, I was smart enough not to mention this unjustness to Mel, who, despite my best efforts, seemed rather annoyed with me, and stormed out of the room faster than I'd imagined possible. I suppose her anger _was_ pretty warranted considering I'd been ignoring her.

Feeling guilty, I made my way to my locker alone, not bothering with the 'shortcut' through the music corridor. My guilt got worse when I realised that Mel had left for the afternoon without me. Apparently my behaviour had been so unforgivable that I'd been condemned to catching the bus home instead of getting a lift with my friend. And that really was the ultimate punishment. Half an hour of sticky plastic seats and the smell of cigarette smoke was not the best way to end an afternoon. Still, it meant no awkward conversations with Adam.

My bag was pretty light as I carried it out across the grassy area at the front of the school. The car park was ahead of me and beyond that the street. From my position just outside of the building I could see a bus just pulling out from the stop. I didn't need to see the number to know it was mine. Apparently I'd done something wrong today, and now whatever greater force governed my life was punishing me for it.

I grumbled to myself as I started towards the bus stop again.

"Layla?"

I swivelled around to my left a bit to see Nessie Cullen waving at me from beside an expensive-looking red car. It figured – this aforementioned greater force that had it in for me wasn't satisfied with people just being insanely beautiful, they also had to be insanely rich. Great.

My mood must have made my response sound a bit reluctant, but Nessie was so far away that I doubted that she'd notice. Unless the greater force had also given her supersonic hearing, just to make it even more unfair for the rest of us normal humans. "Hey Nessie."

She came running over to me. I considered turning and running away, but that would've been awkward to explain when she caught me. Because she definitely would've caught me. I'd never seen any of the Cullens run before, or do any type of sport for that matter, but when Nessie ran over to me it was as if one moment she was at the car and the next she was with me. Sure, I could see that she'd run in between the two points, and I was pretty sure that I'd be able to build up to the same speed over about 200 metres, but for her it was instantaneous. She was sprinting from step one.

When she reached me she wasn't even panting. "I'm sorry for deserting you in the cafeteria like that today, I hadn't noticed that you'd gone and by the time I got to my table you were already with you friends."

"They're not my friends." I don't know why I felt the necessity to say that, but it thought it was important that Nessie at least knew that I had standards.

She laughed lightly and began walking briskly back towards her car. I had no choice but to follow, feeling more and more awkward with every step I took.

"And you didn't desert me," I added, addressing her comment. "Mel had wanted me to sit with her for the dance-committee meeting." I placed heavy sarcasm on the words, just in case it wasn't clear enough how much of a joke I thought the entire thing was.

Another perfect, trilling laugh.

"Okay, well that makes me feel a little less guilty." I forced a weak smile. Nessie jogged a few steps ahead of me and stopped beside the red car.

Quite frankly, I was amazed that I hadn't noticed it before. Sure, I was no expert on cars, but the shiny silver Chrysler badge was enough for me to know that this car sure didn't fit in around here. The interior was tan leather and from closer I could tell that it was a convertible. Well, at least I hadn't been wrong in assuming that this family was rich.

"Is your car here?" I looked back up at Nessie who was frowning and scanning the virtually empty car park. A few rusty old teachers' cars were scattered around, but nothing that looked as if it belonged to a student. Apparently Monday afternoons were a good time to be at home.

I shook my head. "No, I catch the bus." Nessie's expression made me doubt whether she'd ever caught a bus in her life, let alone one here.

"Oh. Which bus?"

I think I might have told her the number of my usual bus. But I'm not entirely sure. I got a tad distracted from the real world when one of the car doors opened and Jason Cullen stepped out.

It might have just been me, but the moment Jason got out of the car I thought I could sense a change in the mood of our conversation. It had gone from being calm and a little bit awkward to very tense in less than a second. Jason's golden eyes glanced at me and I momentarily blanked out. By the time I regained consciousness he was standing back a bit, near the front of the car, carefully avoiding my gaze. Or at least it felt like that. He probably had barely noticed my existence.

Nessie glanced between the two of us, her expression tight. Then she spoke. "We can give you a lift home if you want. It isn't far out of our way."

I didn't gape openly, and for that I was very grateful. I also didn't say anything, not trusting my voice.

"Or you can catch the bus." She left the second option hanging and, with an uneasy shrug, ducked into the car through the door that Jason had left open.

I was silent. So was he. Blood rushed to my cheeks, and for a moment I was so dizzy that I thought I was going to faint. Which would have been really embarrassing. Luckily I didn't faint, but instead swayed on the spot for a moment, my eyes unfocussed and my thoughts spinning around rapidly.

I don't quite know what happened during that time, because my mind was completely muddled for about a minute, but when I finally became aware of my surroundings again, Jason was much closer to me. _Much_ closer. If I'd reached out my hand I could've touched him. My face was so red that I was surprised a little group of planets didn't mistake it for the sun and start orbiting around it. Yes, _that_ red.

"Are you okay?" His voice didn't sound strained or agitated. It sounded amazing. Beautiful. Perfect.

I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. When I opened them again Jason still hadn't moved. "I'm fine." Even as I said it I was reminded of the exact same conversation that I'd had with Nessie when I'd first met her before lunch. If I met too many more of them they were bound to notice the link between my freak-outs and their presence.

Jason stepped back a bit, and immediately I had to try very hard to resist the pull that wanted me to make up that distance again. It was unsettling how difficult it was to just stay still.

Was it just me or did Jason also seem to have some of my reluctance in his expression?

"Will you be okay to make your own way home?"

Obviously it was just me. Clearly he didn't want me around. Not if he wanted to get rid of me this quickly.

Mutely, I nodded. Then straightened. Hoisted my bag up on my shoulder. Turned around, my back to him and Nessie. And left.

Painfully aware of every time I stumbled on the way to the bus stop, I forced myself not to look back and see if he was watching me. Of course he wouldn't be watching me. What interest would someone like him have in someone like me?

**Jason**

It was hard to tell whether Nessie was cross or disappointed or both. "Why did you tell her to go?"

I ignored my 'sister' as I watched my werewolf-girl make her way to the edge of the street. She sat stiffly at the bus stop, her posture rigid and stiff. Never once did she look back at me, not even when her bus eventually arrived and took her away. I was tempted to follow her. I was sure that finding out where she lived would be useful at some stage.

Instead I forced myself into the car, with Nessie, my baby-sitter for the afternoon, staring avidly at me, still awaiting an answer.

I took a deep breath. "_The risks of associating with werewolves outweigh the benefits_."

"For now," she added, raising her eyebrows at me as if challenging me to reply. I stayed silent, secretly wishing that she was right.

* * *

**I don't really know what force prompted me to go on that big long Paris/Romeo/Juliet rant, but I guess I just wanted ot get the point across in a way that i knew all Twilight readers would understand, thus save me the time of explaining it. Review?**


	6. When I'm With You

**I'M ALIVE!!!!! Really, I am. And I am very, VERY sorry that this has taken SO long to be updated. I thought I'd get more writing done during the holidays, but for some reason my writing pace actually seemed to decrease as my spare time increased. Work that one out. **

**Anyway, here, finally, is chapter five. And please do your best to battle through to the end of it, cos it's kinda important, even though it takes a long time to get going. I wish I could promise that I'll update faster next time, but now that schools back I've suddenly rediscovered this terrible thing called homework, and its no fun at all.**

**Dislcaimer: Twilight is the property of Stephenie Meyer, whoever her publisher is, and whoever made the movie. Sadly, none of those people are me...**

_I wanna feel the way you make me feel  
When I'm with you.  
I wanna be the only hand  
You need to hold on to.  
But I guess I'll never get to call you mine.  
-_- When I'm With You, Simple Plan

**Jason**

"You know you won't be able to avoid her forever."

Why couldn't she tell me something that I didn't already know?

I shrugged.

"And she needs friends right now, did you see how upset she looked on Monday?"

Firstly, I'd just like to point out that, seeing as neither Nessie nor I had seen my girl for almost four days, for all either of us knew she was back to being perfectly content with her life, and that painful, miserable expression might never have to mar her features ever again. Secondly, no I didn't notice how upset she was. I'm insanely in love with this girl – my every thought is about her, every moment of every day I have to force myself not to drop my self-control and just tell her what I am and how I feel. Whenever I'm near her I can't take my eyes off her. And you say she was upset? Really?

"She was upset?" My sarcasm must have leaked into my tone, but Nessie didn't react to it.

Edward, sitting on the couch across the room, looked up from his book to meet my eyes in response to my thoughts. He held my gaze for a second, and then let it go. I don't think my interrogator even noticed the silent exchange, let alone the deep empathy in her father's eyes.

"How could you not have realised how sad she was?" Nessie's incessant voice was coloured with disbelief.

I forced a measured breath out.

Emotions bubbled fiercely just below the surface of my careful composure; I fought hard to keep them in check. Anger at Nessie. Confusion and indecisiveness, wavering between my two intense desires. That overwhelming sense of need which threatened to engulf me whenever my werewolf-girl was foremost in my thoughts. And desperation. Not just for her, but for a decision. For a choice. I didn't want to torture myself any longer. I wanted progress. I might have even reached the point where the direction of my progress no longer mattered. I just needed to make a choice. Any choice.

"Jason! I can't believe that you go around telling us all that you love Layla when you don't even-"

"Nessie." Edward interrupted his daughter, and his eyes – almost black from not having hunted for a while – fixed on her face, flushed from the argument. "I think you've said enough. Leave Jason alone."

Her delicate brow folded into a frown. "But he's-"

"Leave."

I kept my gaze on Nessie's back as she stood and stomped out of the room, going to an effort to make as much noise as possible as she went upstairs. Once she was out of earshot I looked back over at Edward, already absorbed in his book again.

"You aren't going to talk to me about it?"

"You know what you have to do," he said simply. "And nothing I say is going to help you do it."

I relaxed and let a small smile onto my face. "Fair enough."

We both turned as the sound of running footsteps came from outside. Immediately I recognised the sound, and we stood in unison, heading towards the door.

It was normal for only a few of us to go out hunting at one time. If all of us went it got too dangerous – what if we were seen? – and besides, someone needed to mind the house. This time Edward, Nessie and I had been left with the house-minding duties. Jake didn't need to hunt, but he liked the chance to phase every few weeks, just to check in with Leah and to see how everything was doing back at his home. The only remainder of his pack now hung around the Cullens' old house by herself, not so close that she'd have to become a part of the La Push pack, but near enough that she could talk to her brother, Seth, when she wanted. Jake and Bella liked to hear about how all of their old friends and family were, so when the others went out to hunt, Jake had the chance to check in with Leah.

A large, dark brown wolf came out from the woods first, his long nose emerging through the thick trees, followed by the rest of his wolf-body. I smiled briefly at Jake as he rushed past me, heading towards the back door that Edward and I had left open. He'd probably be busting to see Nessie and to tell her all the stuff that was happening back in Forks. I certainly didn't envy her at the moment. Even my most practical 'brother' could get boring when he talked about his old family.

The sound of Bella's footsteps got louder until she too pushed through the last few trees and slowed down to stop beside Edward. I don't think she really noticed me, so after a quick smile I cleared out, heading into the woods to meet up with the others. No sane person would want to go anywhere near her and Edward for the next few hours. They didn't handle time apart very well.

It only took me a couple of minutes to reach the rest of my 'family'. By their scent-trails that they'd left I could tell that they'd separated from Jake and Bella early on in their hunting trip. A lot of the better wildlife hung around in the national parks where people weren't allowed to hunt, so those were good places for us. Seeing as Bella and Jake hadn't been hunting though, it had probably been easier for them to stay closer to the house.

"Nice of you to come meet us," Rosalie said as I came to a halt in the small clearing that they were gathered in.

I shrugged. "I didn't really want to be around Edward and Bella."

Emmett shot me a smirk. "Scary, aren't they?"

"More like disturbing."

Alice dropped down from the tree she was perched in to land by my side. "Disturbingly scary?" she suggested with a smile.

"That too."

"Where did you leave them?" Jasper's eyes never quite seemed to suit the rich golden colour that came from a diet of animal blood, and it still never failed to shock me a little to see him look so unthreatening – almost innocent – with wide, light eyes.

"In the backyard. I was sort of hoping that they'd disappear off into their house and we wouldn't have to have anything to do with them until tomorrow."

Emmett rolled his eyes. "If only. You know we'll have to hear all about whatever has happened in Forks during the past month before they'll leave us alone."

I rolled my eyes and groaned theatrically. "Yeah, Jake had already started regaling his tales to Nessie when I left."

Carlisle smiled warmly, and turned to leave, motioning for us all to follow. Of all of us besides Bella and Jake, he always seemed the most interested in the goings-on of Forks. Clearly in his time spent there his compassion had spread throughout the community, and his interest in their safety still remained.

Instinctively, we all followed him out of the clearing. It was strange, the sense of loyalty that we all felt for him. It was like a permanent attachment, one that you were never aware of establishing, but that was as strong as a hundred steel wires linking us together. He was natural leader, and, as far as I knew, all of us were honoured to follow him.

We all separated a bit as we got closer to the house, each of us finding our own pace, and soon I found myself running alongside Alice.

"Alice?"

Even as we ran, conversation was easy. I could hear Emmett and Esme nearby in the forest, not quite as fast as the rest of us, but still able to keep up with me at my leisurely pace. It seemed that, like me, Alice was happy going slowly and talking to me. Maybe she had something important to say.

"Hmm?"

"I've just been wondering, if my-" I broke off, internally cursing myself. The werewolf-girl wasn't _my_ girl. At least not yet. Probably not ever. "If… _that_ girl… is a werewolf," my voice stumbled as I tried to organise my thoughts, "can you see her future?"

Cocking her head to the side, Alice focussed for a moment, concentrating hard as she ran. It took her a few seconds before she could answer. Her expression was frustrated. "Sort of. I can see bits of her future – snippets. Only when she's with you."

That stopped me in my tracks. "What?"

Alice shrugged and sped up her pace, angling off ahead in the direction where I knew Jasper was.

I made no move to continue, even though the house was so close that I could see the clearing of the backyard in the distance. Why would the werewolf-girl be in my future? And why would Alice be able to see her? Was this another part of her strange, part-werewolfly characteristics?

Sighing, I began towards the house at a walk. If she didn't really smell like a werewolf, and her future wasn't like a werewolf's, then was this girl really a werewolf at all? As I wandered across the yard and through the back door, I made a mental note to ask Carlisle about it later – maybe there was some other fantastical creature that I'd never heard of, and maybe that's what my werewolf girl actually was.

"Jay?" Emmett called me from the lounge room, where he was already perched on the sofa, video-game controller in hand. "I bet I can beat you in the desert course."

I smirked. "No chance."

He raised his eyebrows, daring me to refuse and face his teasing.

"But if you want to lose again…" I sighed resignedly and sat down beside him, grabbing the other controller. My talk with Carlisle could wait until later. And it wasn't like he'd be available to talk to until Bella and Jake had finished telling their stories.

Needless to say, Emmet refused to talk to me for the rest of the afternoon, still stewing over my victory well into the night.

**Layla**

Kari sat on my bed watching me with curious eyes as I paced my small room, phone held to my ear. It was eleven o'clock in the morning, and I'd been making phone calls since seven. Clearly, it hadn't been working out.

"Hey, Adam? Is Mel there? …well can you put her on? …oh…does she know-? …okay. Thanks for trying anyway… bye."

I dropped the phone onto my desk with an annoyed huff.

"She's still not talking to you?"

I shook my head, and Kari sighed sympathetically.

"I just don't get why she's so mad. She _knew_ that I didn't want to go to that stupid dance committee meeting, so why is she so annoyed at me for not showing any enthusiasm?"

"Maybe she isn't annoyed at you about that," Kari suggested – a pretty good display of her ten-year-old wisdom. And yet, I actually hadn't thought of that at all.

Frowning, I sat down on my bed and fixed my gaze on my ten year-old sister. "Why else would she be mad at me?"

Kari bit her lip, so that meant that she had some idea on why Mel might be mad at me. It also meant that she didn't really want to tell me that idea.

"Please!" I practically begged. Mel hadn't talked to me since Monday, and by today (Saturday) I was starting to panic. I couldn't remember any of our fights ever having gone on for this long before. I wanted my best friend back.

"Shouldn't you be working it out by yourself. Whenever I get into trouble you don't help me get out of it." I didn't think that was quite fair, as I played the over-protective sister role very thoroughly, but I couldn't deny that I told Kari to get herself out of her own problems often enough.

"_You_ getting out of _your_ problems _is_ a life lesson. Me and my problems are a completely different thing, though."

She raised her eyebrows. "Do you honestly believe that?"

"I honestly believe that I need my best friend back. And I will do absolutely anything to get her to forgive me."

"Anything?"

I wondered what Kari meant by that. What exactly had I done that had upset Mel so much? And what did that mean I would have to do to get her to forgive me? Still… I needed her. I needed a best friend.

"_Anything_." I promised.

Kari stared hard at me for a minute, not even looking up when Mum came in a dropped off a pile of washing on my floor. Just to have something to do, I picked up the clothes and began packing them into my drawers and wardrobe, very conscious of Kari's eyes on my back the entire time.

Once I'd finished, I sat back down on my bed, and fixed my gaze on my sister's.

"What do I need to do?"

She paused, still thinking. "Well… _I _think that Mel is mad at you because of you and Adam."

"What?"

"You know how, before you pissed her off at the dance-committee meeting, you said that she gave you this big rant about how you never stick to anything?"

I nodded. "'You always say that you're going to do something or be somewhere and then you forget about it or just don't bother.'"

"Yeah, that. I was thinking that maybe, after you got her annoyed, she took a good look at what she'd said, and found out that actually you've never committed to anything."

I interrupted her angrily, "That's not true!"

"Of course it isn't, but she doesn't see it clearly. You know how much she wanted you and Adam to work out while that whole phase was going on, and maybe this entire dance-committee thing was a subconscious attempt to make you feel more pressure to bring a boy with you to the dance. She knows that, if you're put under enough pressure, you'll cave and just take Adam."

"But she _knows_ that that was never going to work out!"

Kari raised her eyebrows. "Does she? You and Adam are on and off so often that I lose track of whether you like him or not."

"He's my friend!" I defended myself desperately, knowing that it wasn't enough.

"Does Mel know that?"

"Yes!"

"Does Adam know that?"

"Yes, he-" I faltered. Did he know? Had I ever really told him that we were over? I knew the answer to that without having to think about it: no. But why not? Why hadn't I ever properly ended it? Had a part of me wanted to keep him there, just in case I needed a date one day? I hoped not. It would be a terrible, hugely selfish thing for me to do that.

But, if Kari was right and this _was_ really about the Adam-thing, in order to get my best friend back, the first step would be to fix up the Adam-thing. I had to end it. Properly, this time.

"I'll go tell him now."

Kari looked surprised at my decision, but didn't stop me when I went quickly to my desk and picked up my phone, dialling the number that I'd known by heart for what felt like centuries.

"You're not going to do it over the phone, are you?" Her eyes were wide with actual fear as she hissed the question at me.

"How inconsiderate do you think I am?"

She looked relieved, and stood to leave. I grabbed her hand as she passed my desk, and mouthed "thank you" to her. If this all worked out, I'd owe her heaps.

"Hello?" Adam's voice came from the other end of the phone-line, and I felt myself automatically tense up. I wasn't going to be able to do this. I was going to chicken out again. I was going to be so worried about losing my 'Adam-security-net' that I wasn't going to be able to dump him.

"Hello? Who is this?"

I took a deep breath. "Hey, Adam. It's me." Urgh, my voice sounded all tense and squeaky, and the tears were starting too. He'd know that something was wrong.

"Layla? You sound weird, is everything okay?"

How could I not adore this guy? He cared about me, he really liked me, and he was my best friend's brother. Was there really so much keeping me from being with him? Would it really be so bad to start that up again?

I gulped and wiped my cheeks, trying to convince myself that it wasn't worth crying over. We'd still be friends, right? And I'd get Mel back. That had to be worth something. "I need to talk to you," I said. "Can you meet me down at the beach?"

"Sure," he sounded worried. Somehow, I knew that his concern was all for me. How could I do this? Even over the phone I could tell how much he cared. "Are you sure you're okay?"

I shook my head, and then remembered that he couldn't see me. Probably a good thing, considering the tears and all. "No, I'm not okay. This whole thing with Mel isn't at all fun, and I want to fix it."

"Do you want me to put her on?" He sounded confused, and I knew he was just looking for some way to help me.

"No." My voice rose a bit, getting hysterical. I took a deep breath to calm myself down. "Just meet me down at the beach in fifteen minutes, okay?"

"Sure."

I hung up.

Had I really done it? If I had just made it through that phone call, then surely I could make it through anything. I grabbed a jacket off the floor and started to my door. It would be best if I got there first, and I didn't want to leave at the same time as him and end up having to walk there together. That would make it even more awkward than it was already going to be.

As I left my room, I caught sight of myself in the mirror beside my door. I looked terrible. My face was all blotchy and my top was smeared with various food and dirt stains. The least I could do would be to look nice for Adam. He'd like that. Even if I was dumping him and telling him to tell his sister that this was one thing that I was finally going to commit to – staying away from her brother.

I found a nice singlet that Mum had just washed and pulled that on instead of the stained top. My jeans were a bit torn and dirty, but I couldn't be bothered changing them. Forgetting about the jacket, I hurried out of my room and down the hall.

"Tell Mum I'm going to the beach. I'll be back before dark."

Kari nodded as I rushed past. "Good luck."

**Jason**

I lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. Thinking. Thinking hard.

Decision. It's such an innocent, easy word. So why was it so hard for me? Maybe a part of the difficulty was that I already knew what choice I was going to make, and I was only delaying acting on it because I was scared. What if this girl, _my _girl, didn't want the same thing as what I wanted? It wasn't as if I knew anything at all about her. I'd never even talked to her. And I love her. A lot. Far too much for her to understand. Far too much for a normal, everyday person to understand. But my girl, my werewolf, she wasn't a person. She _would_ understand.

It all really came down to luck.

How lucky could one guy be? To happen upon the one girl in the entire history of the world who I'm meant for was a pretty lucky thing. Should I really expect any more luck after that enormous dose of it? My entire family knew what the ideal situation would be – you didn't have to be a mind reader to figure that one out – she could imprint on me.

Just one simple, tiny, werewolf-ish reaction and I could spend eternity with her. I could tell her everything that there was to know, and, besides the smell, our lives could be perfect. Together. But only if she imprinted.

According to Jake, when you imprint, there is nothing that can possibly stop you from loving that person. It feels as if they're the only thing on the earth worth living for, your reason for living, the centre of your universe. At least I understood that feeling. Imprinting, falling in love, whatever you wanted to call it, I'd done it. And all I needed for a perfect life would be for my girl to do it too.

Apparently, life just doesn't work out that easily for me.

My werewolf girl hadn't imprinted on me. Jake had promised me that. He'd said that, if she had imprinted, I'd have known by now. He'd said that it'd be impossible for her to ignore me so easily, that imprinting was so powerful that she'd've caved by now. Nessie suggested that maybe Layla was just a stronger person than Jake, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's given up listening to her. It seems like she wants me to be with Layla almost more than I do.

Ever since Monday Nessie's been talking to Layla – hanging out with her too. I think something happened between Layla and her friends, so now she has no one but Nessie to talk to. Although, it is possible that she's just had Nessie's presence forced upon her. I wouldn't put it past my 'sister' to do that, not if she was desperate enough for my werewolf-girl to become involved in our lives. Quite creepy, when you think about it. Not to mention annoying.

"Hey Jase!"

I groaned and sat up, frowning at the disconcertingly good-looking girl at my door.

"Renesmee," I nodded at her, and fell back onto my bed. Hopefully she'd get the message that I wasn't in a talking about my feelings mood.

She didn't get the message. Instead, she walked into my room and perched herself on my bed at my feet.

"I want to talk to you."

"That's great. Can you do me a favour, Nessie?"

"Only if I can talk to you after."

I shrugged. "Sure you can. Here's the favour: go away."

She rolled her eyes and stayed where she was. "I will leave, but let me talk to you first."

"About what?" I had a sneaking suspicion regarding the person who this talk was going to be about, but, just in case it wasn't about my werewolf girl, I kept quiet.

"I think you should ask Layla to the dance."

That made me sit up. "What?"

"Layla. You. Ask. Her. To. Dance. Seriously, I think she'd say yes. She hasn't got a date yet, she told me on Thursday."

I shook my head, trying to get rid of the strange dizziness that I suddenly felt. Me? Ask Layla to the dance? How could I do it? What if she found out what I was? What if she found out that I knew what she was? What if she said no? What if she said yes? What if…

"Huh?"

Clearly, my thoughts weren't very well organised at that moment. It was weird, because a part of me – the human part – understood this confusion in my mind, but the vampire part didn't. Vampires don't get headaches. They don't get confused. They don't get overwhelmed by having too many thoughts. So I may have just set a world record. I am the first vampire ever to use up all the space in my mind.

Nessie looked worried. "Are you okay?"

I frowned, still somewhat confused at the already decreasing pain in my head. "I have a headache."

"What?"

The spinning slowed further, then stopped altogether, and, as I took deep breaths, gradually all of my thoughts organised themselves back into their correct areas of consciousness.

"I just had a headache! I just thought _too much_ for my brain to handle!" Oddly enough, I was excited. Maybe it was the confusion, the weird concept of just having a slightly human moment. But I was happy. Satisfied. It had finally become clear that I really was thinking too much about this. Finally, I knew that a decision had to made. And, of course, I already knew what that decision was going to be.

Nessie looked partway between confused and scared. "What do you mean you thought too much? Your brain – our brains – there's never too much for us."

"Yes there is! I just did it!" I was still grinning stupidly, a very rare sight indeed.

Apparently my mood was infectious. Nessie smiled too, albeit a little confusedly.

"And why exactly is that a good thing?"

"Because I just proved that I've been over-thinking this. I just _proved_ that I need to make a decision about my werewolf-girl."

Suddenly Nessie understood my excitement. A wide, brilliant, dazzling smile broke out on her pale face, her rosy cheeks lighting up.

She didn't say anything, and silently reached out to grab my hand, pulling it to her cheek.

What I saw was beautiful, despite the fact that I had no idea what it was.

Brilliant, vibrant colours swirled around a crystal clear pool, all the colours of the spectrum reflected off its gently rippling surface. The pool was _happy_. I could almost hear the joyful, carefree laughter of the waves in the water.

Nessie pulled away, her smile softening.

"What was that?"

Her eyes fell for a moment, almost as if she was embarrassed, and red flushed her cheeks.

"Love."

I frowned, and she shrugged self-consciously.

"That's what love looks like, well, for me at least. Happy and beautiful and tender – like a rockpool."

I couldn't believe her. Nessie had just showed me what could very well have been the deepest, most powerful thoughts that she had. She had trusted me with the secret of those thoughts.

"You didn't have to show me that, you know," I muttered quietly.

It was impossible to describe how much those thoughts had affected me, and even harder to describe how the fact that Nessie had shown them to me made me feel. She trusted me. She loved me. She saw me as family, as a part of that completely inseparable group. She thought I was a Cullen. I'd never felt so completely bonded to someone before. So close to them.

"You're family," she shrugged. "You deserve to know what love feels like. All the rest of us already know."

_Family_. Never before had I felt like I fitted in as much as I did then. Sure, I'd always been a vampire, ever since that fateful day ten years ago. But never before had I truly been a Cullen. For me, it had always felt as if I was different from my 'family'. As if I wasn't a part of their intimate group. But now, with one small, simple gesture, Nessie had inducted me into that exclusive coven.

And all it had taken was a little bit of love.

Ironic, right?

I stood, confident and surprisingly sure for what felt like the first time in a long, long time. I mussed Nessie's hair as I passed her, and for once she didn't complain. By the time I was outside, I'd already shifted to my favourite wolf form, and my padded paws beat steadily against the damp earth as I pushed myself towards the coast. Towards my werewolf-girl.

**Layla**

"Lays!"

I couldn't help smiling, although it probably came out more like a grimace. Adam knew how much I hated the nickname, and therefore used it as often as possible.

"Hey, Adam." I greeted him as I reached his side, sitting on the beach a little away from the water, and knelt down beside him.

He frowned as he watched me trying to get comfortable on the pebbly sand. "Are you okay?"

I rolled my eyes and, with a dry chuckle, shook my head.

"What's wrong?"

"What isn't wrong?" I shot back, glancing up at him and trying to stop my tone from becoming too hysterical. "My best friend hates me, the rest of my friends don't know what to say to me 'cause they're worried that I'll 'desert' them like I did to Mel, and now my only remaining friend is a girl who I've never talked to in my life and who met me for the first time when I was having a miniature break-down because of her bloody br-" I stopped myself, surprised at how carried away I'd gotten. Would it really be a wise decision to let Adam in on my infatuation with Jason Cullen? Somehow, I guessed not. I was about to put him through a tough enough time already, there would be no need to increase his pain by revealing that I was completely hung up on a another guy.

"I'm still your friend, you know." Honestly rang in Adam's tone, making another wave of tears begin forming. Why did he have to be so sweet? It wasn't fair on either of us. He had to be absolutely crushed, and I had to be the one to do the crushing. This _couldn't_ be the only way to get my best friend back.

The first few tears leaked from the corners of my eyes, and, without realising, I let my head fall to his shoulder. "Thanks."

His head dropped to rest on top of mine, and his arm wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me closer. Why did he have to be so great? Sure, he had his faults – he was annoying and sometimes a bit egotistical, not to mention a little arrogant and immature and he always used the fact that I hated seeing him hurt to get his way – but, really, it was sort of endearing that there was so much to not like about him. And there were so many good things…

"Adam?"

"Yeah?" I could feel his chest rumble as he spoke softly.

I bit my lip. Only a few minutes ago this had felt like an enormous decision to make. Was I really ready to let go of Adam? I could clearly remember that day at the mall with Mel, worrying about her brother asking me to the dance. So, if I knew that this decision was big, and if I knew that I'd thought about it and had decided to end it properly, why did I not want to? Had I just been fighting it? Maybe, just maybe, for all that time I'd just been denying what I felt, just like Adam had said I was. Maybe I'd been scared, scared of how serious he was, scared of how serious _we_ were.

Maybe I should just go for it.

"Come with me to the dance."

His shoulder froze beneath my head, and I automatically tensed too, awaiting a response.

"Please say that again." His voice was barely above a whisper.

"I want you to come with me to the dance." As I said the words a feeling coursed through my body. Was it nerves? Was I worried that he'd refuse? Or was it something else? Had I just made one of the stupidest decisions ever?

I felt him smile, and suddenly his head was no longer on top of mine. I didn't move. Somehow, I knew what was coming. And somehow, suddenly, I regretted having asked him. This was wrong. Very wrong. And this was certainly not going to get me Mel back.

Slowly, I lifted my head, forcing my eyes to meet his.

Hazel eyes, startlingly bright, met mine. He was confident. He knew he'd won.

We kissed.

I was surprised at how good it felt. It never used to feel like this when Adam kissed me. Maybe it was his happiness; the raw, completely oblivious joy that radiated from him. He really did like me a lot, and he really was ecstatic that I'd asked him to the dance. That was good. And, at least for as long as this particular relationship went on, I was guaranteed to have fun. Adam liked having fun. He liked pampering me, and making me feel special and important. I was sure that this time would be no different to the others.

He pulled away, and looked me straight in the eyes.

"What about Jason Cullen?"

My stance became rigid. How did he know about Jason Cullen? Was I really that obvious when I watched him in the cafeteria, or snuck glances at him in the hallways? Or was he bluffing?

"What about him?"

Adam's brow furrowed and his hand, which had found its way to my neck when we'd kissed, dropped back to the sand. "I thought you were going to the dance with him."

I only just resisted bursting out laughing. Who in the world would have told him that Jason was going to the dance with me? And how had he ever been able to believe that person anyway?

Adam misinterpreted my silence, and instantly went into rewind. "It's okay if you actually can't come with me. I just sort of figured that since you were asking me, that maybe you'd cancelled on him. Because the last thing I knew was when Mel and you told me that you and Cullen were going together – remember that day at the mall?"

Luckily, the last bit made it all come back. Mel had told Adam that I was going with Jason, just to get her brother off my back. He'd believed her, too. Poor, poor, deranged boy. As if Jason Cullen would go to the dance with me.

"Um…" I stalled. I still had the opportunity to use the Jason excuse. I still had the chance to say 'this has been great, but I'm with someone else, and I really can't be with you'. So should I?

Adam's uncertain hazel eyes held mine. It felt as if they were pleading with me, begging me to accept him, to let him in again. The battle was lost before it had started. I just couldn't refuse this guy.

Sighing, I crawled my hand across the sand until it brushed against Adam's. I curled my fingers around his, and lifted our clasped hands onto my lap. He really was a good guy, and he really did like me. And I really did like him.

Maybe it was time to let go of everything else. Maybe it was time for me to give up on this stupid infatuation with Jason Cullen, and accept what I had. Maybe it was time for me to grow up, to stop relying so heavily upon Mel and my friends. I had to learn to be mature. To be an individual. And I knew that being with Adam would help me with that. We could be alone together.

"Forget about Jason Cullen," I said, as much to myself as to the boy beside me. "I'd love to take you to the dance."

He smiled. Honest. True. Committed.

Over his shoulder, I watched as the trees that bordered this part of the beach rustled in the light breeze, and the dark shape of some large animal withdrew under their cover.

**Jason**

They kissed. A long, drawn out, lots-of-touching-each-other's-faces kiss.

Pain, almost unbearable, ripped through me. A vampire could never feel such intense physical pain as this. I doubted even a human could.

My sharp, wolf senses picked up on every movement, every sound that they made. Most of the talk was irrelevant. One part, however, interested me.

"What about Jason Cullen?" The boy asked, his expression probing.

My ears pricked up, and my initial anger, for a moment, subdued.

What did this boy know about me, and why did it relate to my girl? Her eyes – delicate and the softest turquoise – were uncertain as she concentrated in thought. About me. I knew it was very little to base my hopes on – the fact that, just for this virtually insignificant bit of time, she was thinking about me – but for the moment it was all I had. As her gaze faltered for that one second, I knew that it was because of me. _Me_. She was thinking about _me_.

Her final words hurt more than I would've thought possible. More than being stabbed with a white-hot poker, but not quite as much as becoming a vampire. Somewhere between the two, though nearer to the painful end of the scale.

"Forget about Jason Cullen."

_Forget about him_.

I shrank back into the thin woods behind me. The trees embraced me, their brittle branches cracking easily under my strength. And right there, I collapsed.

* * *

**Don't hurt me, please!**


	7. Nothing Ever Stays the Same

**Yes, I'm ALIVE!!!! I'm not even going to try to make up an excuse. But here's the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: Nope.**

_Things aren't good or bad.  
It's just the way of things to be neither.  
Nothing ever stays the same.  
_-Anonymous

**Layla**

A clap of thunder echoed overhead as rain poured from the thick, billowing clouds in the sky. Outside the packed cafeteria, girls' screams could be heard as they rushed between the school buildings, trying desperately to protect their new perm from the heavy rain with schoolbooks or jumpers. The boys, for once appearing the more practical of genders, talked and joked as they wandered through the storm, seeming barely aware of the icy winds, bucketing rain and crashing thunder.

Next to me, one of Adam's friends – I'd already forgotten his name – laughed openly at a girl in the year above me who'd just pushed through the doors, wringing water from her hair which hung limply around her equally soaked face. Admittedly, the girl _did _look pretty dishevelled; shivers were wracking her body violently, and her skin was almost blue from the cold. The boy beside me definitely wasn't the only one clearly amused by her misfortune, I could see a few other people were nudging their neighbours and pointing at her with smiles. Still, I felt guilty about being associated with someone so inconsiderate.

I was sitting with Adam and his friends, who had easily accepted the news that I was his girlfriend again. At my old table, all my friends still sat together, Mel with her back to me, stonily ignoring my gaze. Delia and the rest of them, who had no idea of the conflict between Mel and me, kept shooting questioning or worried glances in my direction. Although, that mightn't have had anything to do with Mel, and more to do with the fact that for the second day in a row I was sitting at Adam's table, on Adam's lap – a pretty obvious sign that something significant had happened between us.

"Does anyone want the rest of my sandwich?" I held up the half-eaten chicken and lettuce sandwich that I'd bought, trying not to let too much of its contents fall out of it as I waved it temptingly towards Adam's friends. I'd never before noticed quite how much teenage boys eat – probably because I spent so very little of my time in their presence – but, having sat with Adam for two days now, it was clear that they consumed an enormous amount of food.

Immediately, fourteen hands reached out to grab my sandwich, which I quickly let go of, letting the seven boys tear it to shreds as they fought for it. A fair amount of chicken and lettuce fell onto the table, but luckily that wasn't wasted either, as the friend who had laughed at the girl scooped it up and threw it into his mouth. I cringed back into Adam, smiling despite myself as his arms curled tighter around my waist.

"Next time I'll bring the mouldy bread." I muttered under my breath.

"And the scraps from last month's dinner – I'm sure they'll get eaten too," Adam added, his breath tickling my ear. I rolled my eyes.

Another crash of thunder shook the building, and I wondered idly if it might collapse altogether. I knew for a fact that this particular building had been built some one hundred years ago (the teachers had made a big deal for its hundredth birthday a little while ago, offering free cake in celebration of it), so it couldn't still be completely stable. A flash of lightning followed, and I leaned forward to get a better look out the windows as it streaked across the dark sky.

The boy beside me, finishing chewing on his lettuce, groaned melodramatically and dropped his head onto the table. "I have gym next! The running track is going to be like mud!"

"Isn't gym class usually in the gym?" I asked him, trying not to sound too patronizing.

He turned his head from side to side, keeping it on the table. I took that as a 'no', and shrugged. "We always have gym in the gym."

"That's 'cause you're in year 9."

"Oh. So in what year do we move to the oval?"

Adam answered me this time. "Next year you'll be on the oval; unless they've changed the system or something since two years ago. In year 10 you do the sports that need to be played on a full-sized field – soccer and hockey and stuff."

"I guess that makes sense."

"Yeah, I think the administration thought it made sense too." His tone was teasing. I hit him on the shoulder and told him to shut up. He smirked, but stayed silent.

A few people glanced towards the windows as the sound of the rain on the cafeteria roof intensified, pounding against the steel sheets and echoing through the large room. Outside, it was impossible to see more than a metre from the edge of the building because the rain was so heavy. A few more people rushed in, one carrying an inside-out umbrella that must've been ravaged by the wind. The bell rang for half-lunch and a few people reluctantly stood, not looking happy at having to leave the building to get to particular meetings or lessons. I spent a couple of seconds pitying them, before I remembered that I was supposed to be in the music room for guitar practice. Great.

I sighed and made to stand up, but Adam held me on his lap, burying his head in my shoulder.

"Layla, you can't leave now – look at the rain!"

"I _am_ looking at the rain, and really not looking forward to going through it, but I have to go. I have to practise."

Adam grumbled incoherently against my neck, pulling away for a moment to speak. "You don't need to practise, you're a pro at piano."

I smiled. "I know I'm a pro at piano. That's why I'll be practising guitar instead." I pressed a quick kiss to his forehead, then untangled myself from him and started towards the door. Glancing back, I saw him wave to me and returned it, before he turned back his friends.

Weaving among the tables towards the door, I kept my head down, avoiding the eyes that my paranoid brain told me were boring into the back of my neck. It wasn't like it was rare for people to act as Adam and I had been acting, so I figured that the stares couldn't have been because of that. And neither Adam nor I – at least to the best of my knowledge – was particularly popular, so it wasn't as if us getting back together would be the latest bit of hot gossip. I could only assume that whoever was staring was simply doing so out of boredom, and not because of anything that I had done or that was even remotely related to me

I reached the cafeteria doors and scowled out at the pouring rain. It wasn't I had any particular dislike for rain, but, just like any other sane person, I much preferred sunny weather. And _this _rain... well, it seemed to me that walking through it would be roughly the equivalent of having the entire Atlantic Ocean emptied on my head for every step I took. In other words, not exactly my cup of tea.

"Trying to delay the inevitable?"

I jumped as a voice came from behind me, and spun around to see Nessie Cullen and one of her sisters standing there, the latter having just spoken.

"Oh, what? Um, yes... I guess. I just really don't want to walk through all that rain." I did my best to answer her question whilst wracking my brains to try and remember which sister this was. The only other name that I could remember from their family was Jason's, and it clearly wasn't him.

The girl who'd asked the question smiled sympathetically and walked forward a few steps, passing me and the safety of the cafeteria roof to stand in the rain. As she went by me, I suddenly shrunk back in what felt more like an instinctive movement than anything else. At the same time, my nose scrunched as a chilling, sour scent filled the air, whooshing into my lungs and freezing my insides. Just as suddenly as I'd smelt it, the scent was gone, and Nessie's sister had moved out from the cover of the cafeteria and into the rain. Immediately I was embarrassed, and forced myself to stand straight again. Nessie laughed lightly and moved to my side, grinning at her sister as if my reaction had been funny instead of weird.

"Alice, can you please not go around scaring my friends, it's very rude." Nessie's tone was teasing, and she spoke to the girl in the rain in a similar tone to the one that I'd use with Kari when she did something silly.

The girl in the rain – Alice – grinned back at her sister. "I'm sorry Nessie, I'll try to behave myself."

Nessie rolled her eyes and turned to me. "Layla, in case you didn't know, this is Alice. She's in our year. She's a little bit crazy, so you can just ignore her most of the time. I certainly do." She shot a smile at Alice as she said the last words, and in response got a splash of water from a murky-looking puddle aimed at her.

I nodded stiffly, still shaken from my unexpected reaction to Alice. Why had I acted so strangely? Maybe it had just been the surprise of it – I just hadn't been expecting her to walk past me and out into the rain. But even in my head that explanation sounded pretty far-fetched. So why then?

"Um, I'd better be going. I have a guitar to practise."

Nessie waved at me as I began towards the far away building, invisible beyond the sheets of rain. I waved back half-heartedly, and nodded to Alice as I carefully skirted around her, trying to make the couple of metres distance I left between us look normal. The rain poured down on me, heavier than I'd thought but not as cold as I'd feared. A gust of wind howled across the empty grounds, whipping my dripping hair around my face and stinging my skin. I hunched my shoulders against the onslaught ready for the explosion of goosebumps to erupt up my arms and legs. Mercifully, the wind too seemed less cold than I expected, and despite its strength I barely shivered.

By the time I reached the music rooms I was completely soaked, my hair and clothes dripping in a similar fashion to those of the girl who Adam's friend had laughed at. And yet, unlike her, I felt perfectly warm. My skin was still its usual pinkish-brown, and there wasn't even the hint of a single goosebump. Already, I could feel the water drying off me in the heated corridor, and when the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch, not a drop of moisture remained on me.

**Jason**

Alice's eyes fixed on my werewolf girl as she stood and made towards the cafeteria doors. Her brows were furrowed in concentration as she tried to see what she could of the girl's future. I could tell from her frustrated expression that she couldn't see much.

"It's getting harder to see her," Alice admitted, as she lifted her gaze and turned to look at me.

I made a sound partway between a sigh and a groan. On one hand this was good thing, it meant that we would soon know for sure exactly how much werewolf was in her. But on the other hand – on the hand that my feelings were clutched in – it meant that the chances of me being with her were quickly fading.

"Can you see _anything_?" I asked, almost fearing her answer.

Alice concentrated again, and I waited impatiently until her eyes came back into focus. "A little; just snippets of the very near future. And…" she broke off, looking away from me.

"What?"

She frowned down at the table, refusing to meet my eyes.

"What else can you see?" I demanded, my voice rising.

Edward shot a cautionary glance in my direction from the other end of the table. I rolled my eyes at him, but lowered my tone as I spoke again. "Alice, tell me!"

Without any clear motivation, she suddenly stood, and skipped around the table to tap Nessie on the shoulder. The two of them had a quick whispered conversation, so low and fast that I couldn't hear it from where I was sitting. Rosalie, who was beside Nessie, leaned in to listen as well, and added a quick comment to them before turning to me.

"You'll want to watch this," she advised, inclining her head towards Alice and Nessie who were moving quickly towards the doors. "Maybe you should go line up for some more food." I glanced at my still full tray, and raised my eyebrows at her. She huffed impatiently. "Then get some treats for the dog, I'm sure he's hungry."

Jacob, on the far side of Edward, looked up, interested. I shrugged at him and got up from the table, not bothering to wait for him to catch up before I began walking towards the counter where the food was served. After shooting an icy "bow wow" at Rose, Jake caught up with me, holding a tray.

"If you're getting food, you're going to need one of these," he said, falling into step beside me.

"Thanks," I muttered, surprised at how easily I'd forgotten such an obvious prop.

As I dawdled at the counter, pretending to take a while to make my choice, Jake stood by my side, peering out the nearby doors conspiratorially. I tried to glance what was going on in my peripheral vision, but it was difficult when I had to act like I was paying attention to what the lunch-lady who was trying to serve me was saying, and not was going on outside.

Jake caught my attention when his eyes widened slightly at something that he'd seen, and I tuned out the lady with whom I was supposed to be talking to hear Nessie's voice from outside.

"Alice, can you please not go around scaring my friends, it's very rude."

Nessie's tone was easy enough to understand – it sounded sort of forced, like she was trying to pretend that something serious had been a joke. But it was her words that confused me – 'scaring my friends'? What had Alice done?

"I'm sorry Nessie, I'll try to behave myself." Alice's words were much better delivered, and I managed to feel anxiety at the apparent precariousness of the situation, confusion at what had happened, and gratitude for Alice's better acting skills all at the same time. In another part of my mind, I could hear the lunch-lady still droning on about the varying prices of pies.

"Layla, in case you didn't know, this is Alice. She's in our year. She's a little bit crazy, so you can just ignore her most of the time. I certainly do."

A stab of pain went through me as Nessie said my werewolf girl's name. It was yet another indication that she was lucky enough to be able to talk to her. I, however, wasn't supposed to go near the girl because it was a security risk.

"Um, I'd better be going. I have a guitar to practice."

She played guitar? I filed that piece of information away in my head, along with everything else that I knew about my girl, and tried to ignore the fact that suddenly we had something in common. Her footsteps sounded faster than strictly necessary as she stepped out into the rain and walked away.

Reluctantly, I forced myself to focus on the lunch-lady again. She was standing silently, awaiting an answer to her question.

"The curried chicken and vegetable pie sounds great," I said, surprised but relieved at how natural my voice managed to sound.

Jake punched my shoulder a bit harder than necessary, and murmured a sarcastic, "Thanks, man."

I smirked – he hated vegetables.

**Layla**

"Layla!"

I stopped and looked around for whoever had called my name. I recognised Delia from her dark hair, which was swinging wildly behind her as she dodged around a car and started across the courtyard to catch up with me. Seeing as I was heading in her direction anyway, I jogged towards her, my guitar case bumping into my leg with every stride.

"Layla! I've been trying to talk to you all day!" Her tone suggested that I'd been avoiding her, which I hadn't been doing, so I shrugged and slowed down, letting her close the few metres distance still between us.

"I was right there in the cafeteria, you could've talked to me then."

Delia blushed. "Well, Mel sort of looked as if she'd kill anyone who so much as thought of you and Adam, so we tried to stay very quiet and keep our thoughts to ourselves."

"What thoughts?" I asked, a little louder and more accusing than necessary.

She rolled her eyes at my tone. "You know, the obvious ones. Do want a life home, by the way, Mum is picking me up."

So that's why she'd been at the car park. "Yeah, that'd be good. And what obvious thoughts?"

"That you and Adam are just going through another phase and that it's really nothing for Mel to worry about."

The last part distracted me. "What's Mel worried about?"

Delia shot me an 'isn't it obvious look', and when I stayed quiet, she groaned. "She's jealous!"

I actually laughed at that idea.

"No, I'm serious, Mel is jealous of Adam."

"Why?"

"Because whenever you start dating Adam again, you always completely forget about Mel. Like at the end of last year when he got you tickets to that concert and you were together for a week or two, Mel said whenever you went over to their house it was always for him, and that made her feel really bad and… betrayed."

Mel thought that by dating Adam I was betraying her? I guess that made a bit more sense than the thing that Kari had come up with. But honestly, why on earth would Mel – my best friend since I was four – think that I could ever possibly like her brother more than I liked her? How much of a terrible person did she think I was?

"Oh. I guess that makes sense."

"You really didn't know that?"

I shook my head as the guilt began to sink in. Of course she felt betrayed. Any sane person would feel betrayed. And taking Kari's advice – making amends with Adam – had possibly been the worst thing to do.

I groaned. "I feel terrible!"

"Good. Now you might have some idea of what Mel's feeling."

"Does Adam know how much Mel hates it?"

Delia half-smiled. "I think you're closer to Adam than any of us, so maybe you'd have a better idea of how he feels about all this."

"Adam and I don't really talk much." I felt blood rush to my cheeks, and tried to avoid looking at Delia.

Luckily, I was saved from my embarrassment when her Mum came up to us and offered to put my guitar in the back of the car. We both clambered in to the back seat and spent the entire trip home listening in silence to Delia's little brother, Tom, as he told us in very fine detail about everything that had happened today at his school.

It was only once we'd reached my house and Delia offered to help me get my guitar out of the back that I realised how much the situation really did bother her.

"You and Mel are best friends," she said, continuing before I had a chance to dispute her words. "And what you're doing – especially since you keep doing it _again_ and _again_ – she hates it." Delia shrugged. "Just think about what you're doing to her." With that, she gave me a quick hug and hurried back into her car. I stood, speechless, by the side of the road as the car rounded the corner and disappeared from view.

Well, I thought, that was blunt. Because, even though she hadn't said it, it was obvious what Delia's last words had meant. She wanted me to stop seeing Adam. After only two days! I let out a breath that I hadn't realised I'd been holding, and turned, starting across the dry grass of our front yard.

Strangely enough, despite everything the Delia had given me to think about, my thoughts were completely calm. All I had to do now was to make a choice. A simple, rational decision would end all of this stupid fighting. It would stop Mel being angry with me, sort things out with Adam, get me back to being friends with my friends, let carefree, peaceful Delia get back to being carefree and peaceful. I knew how much it must have been hurting her to see what Mel and I were doing to each other. Sure, we weren't throwing punches or spreading cruel rumours, but we weren't also weren't trying to fix the problem. Delia wasn't stupid, she knew that peace didn't just exist – you had to work for it, you had to want it – all she was doing was making me want it. Now, after talking to her, I wanted peace. I wanted the problem to be fixed. I wanted my best friends back. Far, far more than I had before.

"Layla!" I started as someone called my name, and looked back over my shoulder to see who it was. Adam was clearly visible outside his house, across the road and few houses down from mine. He waved at me to gain my attention, then motioned for me to go over to him. I shook my head, lifting my guitar a little so that he'd see it. I didn't catch his reaction, because suddenly my front door opened and Kari popped her head out.

"Mum wants you," she said, before disappearing back inside.

I considered throwing something at the door to get her attention and ask exactly what Mum wanted, but realised that neither of my hands were free and that it'd be too much trouble to put my guitar or bag down, find something to throw, and then keep going towards the door.

Instead, I waved to Adam and jogged the rest of the distance to my house, shoving the door open and slipping inside. I dropped my school bag at the door, hurried to my room and dropped my guitar in there, and then backtracked to the lounge room, where Mum was sitting on the couch.

"Mum?"

The simple fact that she was sitting on the couch had to mean that something was wrong. Usually she cleaned non-stop, rushing between the kitchen, her room and the backyard all day, everyday. Her expression was stern – not such a surprise – her hard eyes fixed on me.

"Sit," she ordered shortly. I obeyed, lowering myself onto the stool beside the TV. "Explain to me what's going on with you and Mel."

I groaned and dropped my head to look at the ultra-clean carpet. "We had a fight."

"I figured."

Clearly this was one of the very rare occasions where Mum was actually interested the details of my social life. I knew that I really should have appreciated her concern, but what with everyone else's prying today, I couldn't bring myself to be grateful. This was pretty much the one situation where I didn't want Mum's help.

"I'm going to the dance with Adam. She's a little annoyed." I let sarcasm flood my tone, hoping that it would deter Mum from any further prying, even if it did mean she'd get angry with me.

"Why are you taking him to the dance?"

I shrugged, hoping that I could avoid answering that particular question.

Her expression hardened. "Layla, why?"

"I'm going out with him. Again. He's my boyfriend."

"Again?"

I nodded.

Then, she did something even more surprising. She smiled. I almost screamed from shock. Her entire face relaxed, until a small, reluctant smile played on her thin lips. Once the shock had passed I even managed a bit of a smile myself. She had one of those smiles that was contagious. It made me happy to see her happy, even if her joy was coming from my suffering.

She shook her head, still smiling in that strange, amazing way. "Why are you putting yourself through all this again?"

That made me frown, despite her contagious expression. "Through what? You mean through the Adam thing?" She nodded once, her head tilted to the, just like mine when I was curious or confused. "I like him. Not just as a friend. And he likes me too, really likes me. I just want to be with…" I struggled for the right word, wishing that I could finally make someone understand exactly why I was with Adam, "…someone. Properly. I need to stop relying on my friends, on you and Kari."

"And you think being with Adam is going to help that?"

I shrugged uncomfortably. It felt strange to tell someone, especially my mother – my uncaring, endlessly busy, never-has-enough-time-for-me mother – exactly what was going through my head. It felt even stranger to hear my own thoughts coming from someone else's mouth. "He's older, more mature. And he's an individual too."

She raised her eyebrows, and I was struck with how very much she reminded me of myself and my own incredulity. "So you'll be individuals together?"

I nodded. Yes, that was exactly what I meant. And yet, now that I could hear the words out loud, they sounded stupid. 'Individuals together' – that was a contradiction in itself. As for the idea of Adam and I being together for more than a month or two without encountering some colossal argument about something unimportant – it was ludicrous. I was astonished when I felt the prickle of tears behind my eyes. Why on earth was I upset? It wasn't as if I'd ever truly thought that there was anything different about Adam and me now. We were exactly the same people as before, just as incompatible as we'd been the first time we'd broken up. So how had I managed to do it all over again?

The first few tears escaped from my eyes and I looked away, ashamed. "It's _him_."

I heard Mum stand and come over to me. As if I was a child all over again, she knelt in front of me and pulled me into her arms, holding me close. My tears fell unrestrained onto her shoulder.

"Who?"

I let out a choked sob, screwing my eyes hut tight, trying to will away the image that filled my mind.

Dark, auburn hair, ruffled casually. Deep, toffee-coloured eyes, cautious and unsure. Perfect features arranged on flawless, snow-white skin.

The face that had been haunting my mind since I'd first seen it, so long ago that day in the cafeteria. Before this whole mess with Mel and Adam, before Delia had been forced to meddle with the peace, before my Mum had had to resort to talking to me. Back when my life had been so simple and easy and happy.

"Jason Cullen."

I didn't realise I'd spoken the words until I felt Mum stiffen. Slowly, she pulled back and met my eyes, her face deadly serious.

"Cullen?"

I nodded, wiping at my tears as I tried to pick up on her sudden change of mood.

For a moment I thought it was the screen of tears clouding my gaze that made Mum's expression seem suddenly hostile. I rubbed my eyes again, confused, and finally established that her entire stance had shifted from consoling to alert.

"There are Cullens at your school?"

"Yes." I frowned. Why was this fact so important? "Do you know them?"

Mum let out a derisive laugh. "Oh no, I don't know the Cullens. I've heard of them, that's all."

"What have you heard?"

Anger was still plain on her face, and her answer was dismissive, as if it didn't matter. "They just have a bad reputation."

I wasn't going to be satisfied with such a pathetic answer. "Why?"

"Back where I'm from – the La Push reservation – they used to talk about the Cullens."

My mouth fell open. What were the odds? The eldest of the Cullen kids were only in the year above me, so couldn't be any older than seventeen. And what were the odds that the same family – a family that could only be a maximum of seventeen years old – would have lived back at Mum's old town.

"You mean the parents lived there? Dr and Mrs Cullen?" I asked, wondering just how old they were. I mean, I knew that the kids were adopted, so there really wasn't really any limit for their parents' ages, but from what I'd heard of the Dr, he was pretty young. Young enough that girls my age swooned over him once they were through swooning over his sons.

Mum shook her head, the anger slowly beginning to fade from her face. "No, when they lived near La Push there were seven of them." Her tone was certain.

I frowned. There were nine Cullen kids at school, plus the two parents would make eleven. In my year, there was Nessie, Alice, a pair whose names I didn't remember and, of course, Jason – so five. So that meant that, for there to be seven Cullens, at least one of the younger ones would've had to already have been adopted when Mum lived at La Push. So it could only have been a maximum of fifteen years ago. Which couldn't be right, because I was born here.

"No," I said. "That can't be right. Seven of them can't have been alive when you were living in La Push."

Mum looked at me hard, her expression not yet entirely free of hostility, and I unconsciously drew back. It was human instinct to shy away from an angry parent, regardless of whether or not you were the cause of the anger.

"Well, there were definitely seven of them living near the reservation twenty or so years ago."

"Twenty years!" I blurted it out before I could stop myself, forgetting momentarily about my angry parent. It just wasn't physically possible. How could seven of them have been alive twenty years ago – twenty! – when Mum had been living on the reservation? Nine of them hadn't even finished high school yet, and therefore couldn't be twenty. Not unless they'd repeated about four years of school _and_ managed to find some very effective face cream to make them stay looking so young.

"Seven adults," Mum added, and I freed myself from my thoughts to focus on her expression. Her face was scrunched up as she thought hard, trying to remember as much as she could, leaving me to do the impossible maths. "The doctor was about thirty. His wife was a little younger. And they had five kids-"

"Babies?" I suggested, thinking that maybe, just maybe, if they'd been put into high school late or repeated a year or two, then the ages could all work out.

"No," she said, as if it was obvious. "Teenagers. Your age. Maybe a little older."

I gaped. It was impossible. Completely impossible. Unless… unless the Cullens at school weren't the first bunch that the doctor and his wife had adopted! I knew it was unlikely, but it seemed like the only possible solution. There was just no other way that the teenage Cullens that Mum had known were the exact same teenage Cullens that I knew.

"Their names?" I asked, practically begging for Mum to confirm the only even slightly plausible theory that I could come up with. "Can you remember the teenagers' names?"

She concentrated harder, her eyes fixed on the wall to the left of my head. "Edward."

I blinked. I recognised that name. I was almost positive that there was an Edward in the Cullens that were at school now. But Edward was a pretty common name. Maybe there'd been more than one Edward Cullen.

"Alice! Alice was one of them too."

My heart was beating much faster than it should've been. I _knew_ Alice Cullen. Alice Cullen had made it feel like my lungs had frozen over as she'd walked passed, only a few hours ago.

"And Emmett and Jasper."

Neither of those names registered as familiar.

"And Rosalie."

"'Jasper and Rosalie Hale – the blondes'." The words came to me easily, and as I spoke them I remembered Mel saying them, all that time ago in the cafeteria.

Mum's eyes focussed back on me for a moment. "Blonde?"

I nodded, unable to process this information.

It couldn't be a coincidence. It just couldn't be. Not four coincidences. _Five_, I corrected myself. Now that I thought about it, there was definitely an Emmett too.

Standing, I dodged around Mum and made to leave the lounge room.

"Where are you going?" Mum asked, sounding surprised.

"I need to ask Mel something." Mum's eyes widened.

"She's angry with you."

I was distracted for a moment. "How do you know that?"

Mum couldn't be bothered to be embarrassed that she'd given away her cover. "She called to tell me that you and Adam were an item again. It was very nice of her actually. I don't suppose you were planning on telling me."

I shrugged. "I didn't think you'd be interested."

"I guess that's was why you didn't tell me earlier."

I nodded curtly, not willing to forgive Mum for years of ignoring me solely because of a half-hour conversation, which had mostly been about the Cullens anyway. "I have to go."

"Okay." Mum stood and looked around the room. "Maybe I'll watch a bit of TV," she suggested. I sighed, trying to remember the last time Mum had settled down on the couch and watched TV.

"Go for it."

She picked up the remote and turned the TV on. A news reporter appeared on the screen, rambling on about some flood somewhere. Mum smiled. The contagious one again. Despite myself, I smiled back.

"I have to sort this whole Cullen-mystery out with Mel."

At my mention of the Cullens, Mum looked up, her expression quickly changing from relaxed to strict.

"She's not friends with them is she?"

"No," I said, already beginning to get annoyed at Mum's unwarranted hostility. I just hoped that she'd forgotten my desperate tone when I'd mentioned Jason Cullen in the midst of my tears. It really didn't seem to be the right time to tell her that I was obsessed with him. Then again, there's probably never really a good time to tell your parents that you're obsessed with a boy, especially if he's part of family that she grew up being told to hate.

"Good." She looked back to the TV before she saw my relieved expression that no further questioning had come.

Quickly, I sidled the rest of the way out the room, then almost ran to the door. I let myself out and was halfway across the front yard before the front door slammed behind me. Full of a sudden sense of urgency, I sprinted across the street, then turned to run the couple of houses until I reached Mel's.

But, before I'd even passed the first house, I forced myself to stop.

A car was parked out the front of the McCaine's house: a red Chrysler, its badge glinting in the afternoon sun. I could recognise that car anywhere. Cautiously, I took a few more steps forwards, silently begging for my rapidly drumming heart to slow. It felt like it was loud enough to be heard from miles away.

My paces lengthened as I neared the familiar house, it having been a home-away-from-but-still-very-close-to-home for me since I was four. I was at the fence separating Mel's house from the one next door when the sound of voices came from just inside. Panicking, I ducked behind the fence, peering through a gap in the scraggly bushes that we'd helped Mel's Mum to plant years ago.

The front door opened and three people walked out of the house. Mel was in front, closely followed by Nessie and Alice Cullen. The three of them exchanged a few brief sentences, and I could only catch the occasional useless word, not nearly enough to try and work out what they were talking about. After what felt like an hour but can't have been more than a minute, the two Cullens smiled warmly at Mel and left. They went straight to their car, did a neat turn, and sped off down the street, never so much as glancing in my direction. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to slow my racing heart.

As the Cullens left, Mel stood at her door with a perplexed expression, as if she couldn't quite work out what had just happened. I could definitely relate to that feeling. I'm sure I looked exactly the same after every exchange that I had with the strange family.

Still looking confused, Mel turned to go back inside her house. I chose that moment to stand up from behind the bushes and call her name, biting my lip as I waited for her reaction. It certainly wasn't what I expected. I'd expected anger, maybe a shout or an accusation of spying. At the very least I'd expected a sour glare. Instead, Mel gave me a funny look – almost pity – and went straight back inside. I vaulted the fence and ran to the door, still calling for Mel. I didn't want to be forgiven. I didn't want to tell her that I was sorry and that I was willing to break up with Adam if that's what she wanted. I just wanted answers.

Could these Cullens be the same ones who Mum had known all those years ago? And why had Alice and Nessie Cullen been at her house? Why hadn't they come to say 'hi' to me? Everyone knew how close Mel and I lived to one another.

I reached the door and knocked on it politely. No one answered. I called a few more times for Mel, and even tried Adam and the twins, but no one answered. Giving up all pretences, I pounded on the solid wood and yelled at the top of my lungs. Mr and Mrs Scott next door peered out at me through their curtains. I gave them a quick wave to prove that I was still perfectly sane, then continued my yelling.

Ten minutes later, Kari came over to tell me that the neighbours were complaining. Eventually, when I refused to go away quietly, she forcedly dragged me back to our house, proving to be surprisingly strong for a skinny little ten year-old. Once we got back inside I stopped trying to get away, suddenly paranoid about Mum somehow finding out that the Cullens had been visiting Mel. I withdrew to my room and tried to read a book, but ended up staring out the window at the virtually empty street, speculating about why, exactly, Nessie and Alice would've been talking to Mel.

I was awoken from my trance when a black Mazda passed by, driven by a young-looking woman with short blonde hair. Deciding that my speculations weren't getting me anywhere, I dragged myself off my bed. The least I could do would be to apologise to Kari. And it wouldn't hurt to talk everything that I knew over with her. She'd always been a great listener.

**Jason**

I was a bird. A sparrow, to be exact. And I was perched very impatiently on a tree branch at the edge of Ocean Shores. Eighteen minutes ago, assuming my counting was correct, Alice and Nessie had driven my car along this street. Edward had assured me that they weren't going to my werewolf girl, but when they'd headed off in the direction of her suburb, I had to follow them. And now they'd been gone for eighteen minutes.

It wasn't that I didn't trust Edward. It was Alice who I suspected might do something stupid. And paired with Nessie, she definitely couldn't be up to anything good. Of course, Alice had 'seen' me following them, and had ordered for me to stay where I was. She'd also promised that they weren't going to talk to or communicate in any way with my werewolf. As part of their family, I'd trusted them. Now I was beginning to regret it.

The sound of car reached my tiny sparrow ears, and I could tell that it was my Chrysler. I dived off the tree that I'd been perched in, and landed neatly on the roof of my car. Scanning the area and deciding that it was safe, I quickly shifted out of sparrow-form and into my vampire self. Nessie lowered the back right window, and I clambered in through there, trying very hard not to dent anything.

"What did you do?" I asked immediately, leaning in the gap between the two front seats.

Alice, who was driving, shoved my head back, and snapped at me to put my seat belt on. Apparently, a policeman was going to pull us over just before we reached the turnoff to our house.

"We didn't talk to Layla." Nessie assured me, also clipping her seat belt on.

I just nodded. "Who did you talk to?"

Alice answered this time. "Mel."

"Who's Mel?"

"Layla's best friend. Or ex-best friend, as it is."

I wracked my mind for ay memories of my werewolf girl's friends. I could remember a girl who'd sat beside her at the cafeteria those first few times. "Straight, dark hair? Always smiling?"

Nessie nodded. "Yep, that's her. Although she wasn't smiling much just then."

"Why did you talk to her?"

Alice and Nessie exchanged a look, and I narrowed my eyes.

"Layla's dating Mel's brother, Adam."

I stayed silent, trying to ignore the burning hatred that flowed through my body. How easy it would be for me to get rid of this Adam. To break his neck, quick and simple. He'd hardly feel any pain.

"But he's cheating on her."

Forget quick and simple. I'd break him. One bone at a time. I could see how much blood he'd spill before I was unable to resist it.

"And she doesn't know, so don't tell her." Nessie's tone was cautionary, as if she seriously thought that I was considering telling my girl that her pathetic excuse for a boyfriend was cheating on her.

Alice, of course, knew that my thoughts were on a very different track. "He isn't going to tell her," she assured Nessie, shooting a glare at me through the rear-view mirror as my thoughts got increasingly more brutal.

"Is that all you found out?" My voice was hard, some of my anger leaking through into my tone. I had to concentrate for a second as I forced myself to calm down – perfect acting skills were completely necessary if I wanted to be a true Cullen. No matter what I was feeling, I had to learn to fake neutrality.

"Her mother's Quiluete, so that explains the smell. We're hoping that Jacob will be able to tell us approximately how much werewolf blood your girl has." Alice was quick and efficient in her explanation. I wished that Nessie talked more like that, I was beginning to get annoyed at everything coming through full of emotion and feeling.

We sped out of town and Alice slowed as the place where the police were going to pull us over neared.

"By the way," she added, turning on the indicator as the small crowd of policemen waved her and the few cars ahead of her in. "Your girl was there."

I sat up so quickly that the seatbelt snapped. I cursed under my breath and slid over to the left, clipping myself into that seat instead. "How much did she hear?"

Alice shrugged and lowered the window as a policeman approached the car.

"All I know is that she was there when we went outside. I could smell her."

I groaned. If Alice had been able to smell her, then her scent must've gotten even stronger since lunchtime.

"Then it won't be long until she's completely werewolf."

Alice nodded, either to the policeman or me, I wasn't sure.

* * *

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	8. If I Never Knew You

**Okay, before you kill me for having been alive all this time and not updating, let me explain.**

**I wrote this chapter about a year ago, but never posted it because I like to stay a chapter ahead and was still only midway through writing the one after this. Then I got a (small) part in a musical. Then I started my Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award. Then I went on an amazing trip to Thailand and Cambodia. Then I had a messy break up with a sort-of boyfriend. Then I got a real part in a very time-consuming play. Then I had my yearly exams. Then I had school camp. Then I finished my Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award. Then it was Christmas. Then I went on a troad-trip with my family through the Snowy Mountains. Then school started again. Then I started my Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. Then my so-called friend signed me up for another musical.**

**So it's not like I haven't been busy.**

**But, this morning I was posting another oneshot and looked through all my stories, and realised how many reviews I'd gotten for this. Then I read the reviews. Reading all them made me realise how much people ahd liked this story and how you all looked forward so much to it beign updated. It made me remember how proud I'd been of writing a good-quality almost-original story. So, I went and dug up this chapter and did a quick read-through and decided to post it. It's not a promise that I'll be updating again at any recognisable rate. This is just me saying thank you to anyone who sticks around to read it. If there are any fans of this story left, then I'll do my best to finish it off properly. If not, then I can leave it and be glad that no one is any worse off because of that.**

* * *

_I thought our love would be so beautiful  
Somehow we'd make the whole world bright  
I never knew that fear and hate could be so strong  
All they'd leave us were these whispers in the night  
_If I Never Knew You – Pocahontas soundtrack

* * *

**Jason**

It was Edward's idea for us to go out and buy me a tux. Alice, of course, was all for it, and because Alice was going, Jasper thought he'd tag along too. Plus, he'd said, I was going to need babysitting. I couldn't be bothered to mention the fact that Edward and Alice would be there, and that it wouldn't take more than two of them to stop me killing innocent humans. I wasn't _totally_ ruthless.

Six hours and exactly thirty-four shops later, I had my tuxedo. It was black. And, as far as I could see, exactly like every other tux that we'd looked at. But apparently it was one of the best and, according to Alice, looked great on me. It was dark by the time we got home, and I had to transform into a cheetah to catch up with Bell and Jacob, already out on their hunting trip.

Rounding a corner and leaping over a fallen tree, I stoped suddenly as I reached the small clearing they'd stopped in. Two small deer were lying dead and drained on the ground, and Jacob was partway through a larger buck.

I grimaced at the bitter smell of the meal. "Not much to choose from?" I asked, shifting back to human.

Bella shrugged. "Jake decided it'd be fun to scare the herd when we were still half a mile away."

"You couldn't catch up?"

She frowned. "You know I'm not as fast as you guys."

"And I guess Jake was holding you back."

He growled through a mouthful of meat in response.

"Exactly."

I laughed lightly, feeling, as usual, rather uncomfortable in Bella's presence. It wasn't that I didn't like her; I just always got the feeling that she didn't really see me as a part of the family. Her life had already been perfectly complete before I'd come, and I was just an extra little extrusion to her. Like a wayward twig sticking out of the perfectly smooth bark of sapling. I wasn't a problem to the family – just an unfortunate ugliness.

"Do you know how far away the herd went?" I asked, hoping for a reason to leave the awkward gathering.

Jake cocked an ear north, listening hard, and then barked twice before turning back to his meal.

"Two miles?" He bobbed his head – a nod. "I can do that. See you guys later." And with that, I shifted back to cheetah and sprinted into the bushes.

"Is he showing off?" Bella asked as I disappeared from sight. Jake chuckled in his wolf-ish tenor.

Layla

It's surprising just how fast important events can sneak up on you. The dance had suddenly gone from being ages away to being tomorrow. I was living in blissful oblivion to this fact until, at lunch, one of the Adam's friends said, "So, have you got a suit yet?" and Adam replied, "Yeah, picked it up last night."

"Suit? Why do you need a suit?" I'd asked, oh-so-ignorantly.

His friends all turned to gape at me.

"Your dance is on tomorrow night."

Then I laughed, which wasn't the smartest thing, before counting off the days in my head. 24th, 25th, 26th… "Oh my God!"

Adam smiled bemusedly. "You have got a dress at least, haven't you?"

I hit him on the arm, annoyed that he was amused at my forgetfulness. "Yes I have a dress! You were there when I bought it!"

"Isn't it bad luck to see the dress before the dance?" One of his smart-arse friends asked.

"That's for weddings, doofus," another shot back.

Adam wisely ignored them. "I was with you when you bought the dress?"

"Yes! We were with Mel and you tried to ask me out but Mel bailed me… remember?"

He screwed up his face, trying to look deep in thought and failing miserably. "Is it blue?"

I rolled my eyes exaggeratedly, and stood up from the table, swinging my legs over the seat and dodging out of the path of a half-eaten hot dog that went sailing through the air just behind me.

"No. It isn't blue."

Adam looked disappointed. "Oh…"

His smart-arse friend grinned. "I don't think him having seen the dress will be problem."

I rolled my eyes again, and contented myself with a patronizing glare in his direction. Then I turned back to my boyfriend, who was clearly holding back a smile at my aggravation. "I'm gong to go practice guitar. Good luck with remembering what my dress looks like." Bending down to plant a quick kiss on his forehead, I walked briskly out of the cafeteria, hoping to beat the half-lunch rush. Someone called my name as I pushed through the double-doors but, assuming it was one of Adam's friends attempting to trick me into standing still for long enough to throw an item of food at me (and probably miss anyway) I continued out the door.

It wasn't until I was halfway across the yard to the music centre that I heard someone call me again.

"Layla! Layla! Quit ignoring me, I need to talk to you!"

I spun around to see Mel, her expression blank, jogging to keep up with my fast walk. I was so stunned that I stopped where I was, wondering whether or not my eyes were deceiving me as my ex-best friend hurried over.

"Layla, thanks for stopping," she said, slowing down as she neared me. My brow furrowed in confusion. Wasn't she angry with me?

"Aren't you angry with me?" The words came out before I could stop them, but I made no effort to take them back. I was curious.

Mel smiled haltingly, as if wondering if I was joking. "No, of course I'm not angry. Not anymore."

My confusion increased. "Why aren't you still angry?"

"Because you broke up with him!" Happiness gleamed in her eyes, and I was for a second tempted to just agree with whatever she was going on about, as long as it meant that I got my old best friend back.

"Wait – what?"

Her expression fell. "Adam. You broke up with him. Didn't you?"

"What?" I repeated.

"That's what they told me…"

"Who?" I briefly wondered if a joke about single-word sentences was appropriate.

Mel frowned. "Your friends. Those Cullen girls, Alice and Nessie, I think."

"Alice and Nessie Cullen?"

She nodded slowly, her eyes loosing their sparkle. "Is that not true?"

"No!" And before I could control myself, or even consider just who I was talking to, I was off on a mindless rant.

"Why does everyone keep telling me that I should be breaking up with Adam? He's never done anything but respect me and like me and be nice to me when everyone else decides that they can't stand that sight of me! Can none of you people understand that I'm old enough and experienced enough and good enough to make my own decisions about who I date? First Kari tells me to go for it, then you act like I'm breaking some sort of law by even going near him! And then Delia goes on and on about how much all this stuff is hurting _you_! What about me? You don't think it hurts me when my best friend stops talking to me! You don't think it hurts me when-"

"Shut up!"

I stopped in shock.

"Pardon?"

Mel's expression was fierce. "You love to complain don't you? Even when everything in your life is going for you, you still have to complain about something. My brother's in love with you – oh no! You have friends who help you get through problems – disaster! People try to warn you about making dumb decisions – it's a travesty! Well, you know what, I'm done helping you! I don't care anymore! Make your own mistakes, and don't expect me to be there and clean them up for you!"

With that, she left, stalking off back towards the cafeteria. I bit my lip, resisting shouting back some cheap, easy insult. I had far more class than that. Lifting my chin and turning back towards the music centre, I continued on my way.

My face was flushed red with anger, and it felt like all my blood was boiling. My limbs were trembling. A gust of cold wind blew in my direction, carrying with it the sour, ice-cold scent that I'd detected on Alice Cullen. For a moment it felt like a pool of heat was embracing my flesh, coming from the inside out, just begging to be released in the heat of my anger. Biting my lip harder, I forced the heat back, into the depths of my stomach until it faded away completely.

I gasped as my teeth cut through the soft flesh of lower lip, a small stream of blood flowing into my mouth. From the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a movement in the shadow of the building to my left. Squinting, I could just make out the shape of a tall boy with a thin build. His golden eyes shone out of the darkness, his auburn hair clear against the brown bricks of the wall.

Another gust of wind came, blowing his scent towards me. The ice burned my throat again. I growled harshly.

Jason

The sound of her growl made the hairs on the back of neck stand on end. Every cell in my body told me to fear that sound, to react to that sound. I resisted. Instead I kept my gaze on her, watching as she disappeared inside the building. I wondered if she knew just how close she'd gotten to killing her best friend. I also wondered when I'd next have an opportunity to murder Alice and Nessie.

*

"I can't believe you told her."

Nessie held her head high, completely unashamed.

"What were you trying to do? She almost phased right there in front of her friend, in the middle of school! What would you have done if she hadn't been able to stop it? How could you have stopped her from killing her best friend?"

"Ex-best friend," she corrected idly, still looking confidently aloof.

"Nessie! She isn't just some doll for you to mess with. She isn't just some random person whose life you can meddle with. She's a werewolf! She's dangerous! And even more so because she doesn't know it yet!"

Nessie stayed silent.

Carlisle, sitting on the couch, the only other occupant of the room, sighed. "I know what you were thinking Nessie. I know that you just wanted to help Jason, but this isn't the way to do it. Trying to change someone else's life isn't fair – it isn't right. You can't meddle and not expect consequences."

Still, she said nothing.

I stared at her, trying my best to calm down. I knew that she must've had a good reason for doing what she did. She wasn't a bad person, at least not in the sense that she's needlessly hurt someone.

"Why did you do it?" I asked, my tone blank.

Nessie turned to look at me, her deep brown eyes sad. "I'm sorry," she said, her tone sincere. "I wanted to help."

I groaned, torn between frustration and sorrow. "Nessie…"

"It's just that, she's always there, being with her boyfriend and adoring him and talking him up and sacrificing stuff for him, and she has no idea that every time she turns her back he's cheating on her."

A ball of anger made itself known in my gut, thrashing angrily, begging for me to give in. I closed my eyes for a moment to quash it.

"I know that."

Nessie looked away, pulling in a deep shaky breath. "I just… I feel like I already know her. Like she's already my friend. And I don't like seeing him hurt her like that."

I took a step closer to her, putting my arm on her shoulder. Unconsciously she turned into me, burying her head in my shoulder. At the back of my mind, I wondered what it would look like to Jacob if he walked in on this. Would he be mad? Would he think that Nessie and I were…?

In my peripheral vision, I saw Carlisle stand and edge out of the room. It was like, all of a sudden, this didn't concern the rest of my family anymore. My girl, Layla, was Nessie's and my problem. And strangely enough, I was sort of glad. It was nice not to be the only one who cared about a person.

I started when something dripped through my shirt and onto my skin. "Nessie?" I asked, pushing her away to see if she knew what had happened. Her eyes were swollen and her face blotchy. She was _crying_.

"I know you'll end up with her, Jason," she was saying, babbling through her tears. "But I just want it to be soon... because I hardly even know her and she's already my friend… The others don't see it yet… but you're going to end up with her… and one day she'll be a part of our family too…"

I smiled, and pulled her in for another hug.

"Thanks for the faith Nessie. And if – when – it finally does happen, you'll be the first to know."

It was nice having family.

Layla

I stepped out into the living room, staring hard at my feet as Mum saw my dress for the first time. I knew it didn't look horrific. I mean, it was the right size and length and covered everything necessary, but it was just really… pink.

Mum was silent for a few seconds, looking me up and down. "I like it," she decided, smiling. "It looks good on you."

I scowled, pushing my painfully done up hair over my shoulder. "I look like a meringue. A huge, pink, puffy meringue."

It was obvious that Mum was trying not to laugh. "But a very beautiful meringue."

Her comment shouldn't have cheered me up, but it did. After all, if nothing else, it was nice to finally have a Mum who cared. I grinned. "Thanks for the sentiment." She nodded, and moved forward to hug me, holding me tight in her arms.

The sound of footsteps alerted us to Kari's presence, and Mum pulled away before we caught in a family moment.

"Doesn't Layla look great?" Kari asked, excitement ringing in her tone.

Mum just smiled, biting her lip to stay silent. I rolled my eyes at her and moved to Kari's side, tussling her hair and muttering a goodbye.

"See you, Layla!" Kari called. "And don't be back too late. And don't mess up your hair, it took me ages!"

Laughing, I opened the front door and stepped out into the cool night air, wishing I had a jacket that matched my dress. Out the front, Adam was looking great in a light blue open-necked shirt. A black suit jacket hung over his arm, and I wondered if it'd be rude to ask if I could borrow it. He was standing next to a black Mazda, looking quite proud at having found a decent car to borrow.

He smiled as I took a shortcut across the front lawn, and offered his hand when I was closer. I placed my palm in his, letting him pull me in for a kiss. We kissed for quite a lot longer than strictly necessary, but when his hand began fiddling with the thin shoulder straps on my dress I pulled away, raising my eyebrows at him.

"Not the time?" he asked in mock-innocence.

Rolling my eyes, I opened the passenger door for myself and slid in, closing it again before he could try anything else. Oddly enough, I was looking forward to tonight. It felt as if it didn't matter that I had no best friend, a boyfriend who I had a very depressing history with and was about to go to a dance in the school gym. It felt like I was going out with friends. I was wearing nice clothes, I'd be with good company, and be eating food that at least abided by health standards. Maybe Mel was right – maybe I really shouldn't have been complaining.

It didn't take long to get to the school. Adam might have been speeding. If he was, I didn't mind. We found a spot in the already crowded car park, and held hands as we walked up to the gym. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much as I handed a girl our tickets and she opened the door.

Despite the dance committee's extensive planning, the gym didn't look particularly great. Balloons and crepe paper hid most of the brick walls, and the only visible bit of brick was behind a table laden with bottles of soft drink. Pulling Adam towards there, I decided to grab a Sprite before someone decided to spike it.

Maybe it was the acoustics, but the music didn't seem too great. A few people were shifting nervously in the middle of the basketball court marked on the floor, but no one was dancing.

"You should go show them a few moves," Adam whispered in my ear.

I turned to look at him. "I cannot dance. I play music, but I don't sing or dance to it."

He frowned. "You're a great singer, too!"

"When have you ever heard me sing?" The song changed to a slightly louder one, and I had to yell the end of my question to be heard.

"Just the other day. We were hanging out in my room, and I was playing some music and you were singing. You were great!"

"Huh?" I glanced up at someone called my name, and waved to Delia (who'd just come through the doors) "I've definitely never sung in your room. When was this?"

Adam shook his head stubbornly, sure that he was right. "A couple of days ago, I swear! Mel was all pissed at me, and told me to go into my room, so you came with me. She had friends over or something."

"Huh?" I honestly had no idea what he was on about. "Two things, Adam: One – Mel would never tell you to take me into your room. Two – Mel's friends are my friends, I have been with them!"

His forehead creased as he thought hard. Then, just as Delia arrived at my side, "Oh, yeah! I guess I was thinking of someone else. Or some other time. I don't know." He smiled, and I rolled my eyes at him, turning to hug Delia.

"You look great!" I said, nodding at her dress.

"You look good too," she said. "Although a bit more pink than I ever expected to see you in."  
"I didn't choose it," I insisted, wondering how many more people would be so uncomplimentary to my dress. "Mel did, as a joke, I think. But I had no alternative. I think I left my shopping until a bit to late."

Delia laughed, "Yeah, just a little."

*

The rest of the night went by in a similar fashion. A few good songs came on, and Delia and Adam forced me to dance to one of them, but wisely chose to leave me be for the rest. About an hour after Adam and I had arrived, Mel sauntered through the door, a tall guy who I'd never met before on her arm. I couldn't help but smirk, wondering where she'd found a random at the last minute to accompany her.

At 8:30, the music was turned down and we were all told to go outside for dinner. My eyes widened as I stepped outside, and the full extent of the dance committee's budget became apparent. On the oval, about a hundred small square tables had been set up, complete with silverware, ornate glasses and serviettes. Fairy lights were strung around the outside of the collection of tables, matching the candles that flickered in their centres.

"Wow," I breathed. Beside me, Adam squeezed my hand.

I let Adam lead me to a table at the edge of the cluster, a little excluded from everyone else. He sat down, and I took the seat opposite him.

"This is a lot better than my dance," he said, looking around.

I sighed. "I should congratulate Mel. This is amazing."

Adam raised his eyebrows questioningly. "A peaceful conversation between you and Mel? I'd like to see that happen."

"I know. We haven't exactly been on the best terms lately. Maybe now would be a good time to forgive her." I looked around at the lights again. "It _is _beautiful."

"So are you," Adam said, his expression sincere.

Despite the cheesiness of his words, I blushed, pushing a stray bit of hair behind my ear. "Not the time," I muttered, indicating the poshly dressed waiters who were now coming in among the tables, dispersing food.

Dinner went by smoothly, and soon everyone was standing up again, staying outside to dance as the speakers were brought to the doors, blasting it across the crowd on the oval. Adam's and my table was surrounded by empty ones, when a person appeared through the bunch, weaving their way towards us carefully. The light from one of the few remaining candles reflected off the person's face, and I took a deep breath when I recognised Mel.

Close-up, she looked fantastic, and I couldn't help feeling more than a little guilty about my smugness as she'd entered. Clearly, she'd gone to a lot of effort tonight, with flawless make up and her hair straightened to perfection. Searching for Adam's hand across the table, I stood, nodding slightly in greeting as Mel stopped.

"Hi," I said politely. "You look good."

"Thanks, you too," she said, just as stiffly. "I like your shoes." I looked down at my feet. I was wearing the only pair of nice shoes that I had – white hells with rhinestones in the strap across my toes. "It's good that you found something to match the dress."

"Thanks for the dress, by the way," Adam said from behind me, peering around to meet his sister's eyes. "She looks great."

I smiled shyly. Mel merely narrowed her eyes.

"Layla," she began, "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure."

"In private?"

I glanced back at Adam, who eyes were narrowed too. For a moment I could see the resemblance between the siblings. He shook his head slowly, anger clear on his face.

"Um…" I delayed, wondering whom I trusted more. It wasn't hard to decide. "No, I don't think so. Actually, we were just about to go dance-"

Even as I invented the excuse, Adam stood and wrapped his arm around my waist, beginning to turn me towards the crowd of dancing people.

Mel's eyes narrowed further, and she grabbed my arm, her fingers digging into my skin. "I really need to talk to you," she insisted, looking straight at me.

Again, I glimpsed at Adam, who was shaking his head more obviously now. "Whatever you have to say, I'm sure Layla doesn't want to hear it."

Mel still wouldn't let go. "It's not about what she wants to hear, it's about what she _deserves_ to hear."

It was hard to miss the emphasis in her words, and despite myself I was curious. "Adam, maybe I could meet you there…" I offered.

"No."

Ever so slightly, Mel pulled me away from Adam. "She said she wanted to hear. Don't stop her."

"She's my girlfriend. You stopped being friends with her just because you weren't getting enough attention. Which one of us do you think she trusts more?"

Even I thought that was a pretty low shot. I'd be jealous if one of my friends started spending more time with Kari than with me.

"Adam-" I reprimanded, pushing his hand off from around my waist.

His hand wouldn't budge, and as I turned to glare at him I realised his expression was fierce. It was then that I figured out the rather awkward situation that I was stuck in. Neither Mel nor Adam seemed to be willing to let go of me, and honestly, my curiosity about whatever Mel had to say didn't stretch this far.

"You know what," I said, trying to make peace. "I'll just go with Adam. He's right. I don't really want to hear whatever you have to say."

Either in shock or surrender, Mel loosened her grip on my arm, and Adam took the chance to tug me out of her reach. Forcefully, he began guiding me away from the tables, intending to go around the edge of them to where everyone else was.

"Fine!" Mel shouted from behind us. "I'll just tell her like this."

In roughly three seconds, a number of things happened. Adam whipped around to face his sister, his expression livid. Mel's eyes flashed with victory. And, behind her, unnoticed by everyone but me, a tall, lanky, auburn-haired boy started running towards us.

"Adam is cheating on you!" Mel yelled, loud enough to turn the heads of the people dancing.

Jason

We'd organised our arrival perfectly. Obviously, if we hadn't been eating at the dinner, people would've noticed, so it was common sense to only let Nessie and Jake go to the dance before then. Straight after the first person finished chewing on their steak, Edward and Bella, Alice and Jasper, and I, alone, sidled inconspicuously into the crowd.

In any other situation I never would've come but, as Alice had said, I had a tux, and, as Carlisle had said, no one would do a better job at watching my girl than me. We all knew that tonight could be the turning point for her. She'd been teetering on the edge of a very high cliff all week, and it seemed as if the smallest thing could push her over.

As she finished eating her dinner, I watched. As she blushed and held hands with her boyfriend, I watched. As she stood to greet her ex-best friend, I watched attentively.

Because the others were all with their partners, they hadn't chosen to sit around with me, waiting for my girl who may have or may not have done anything. As Bella had so wisely suggested, if anything happened, they'd hear, and could come running faster than the speed of light. Almost. It would have been a flawless plan. If only we'd thought to remember my werewolf's boyfriend's little secret.

Her friend talked. So did her boyfriend. My girl stood in the middle, confident not to let a fight break out. How could she have known that she was the cause of their arguing?

It was when Edward's eyes met mine through the crowd of dancers that I decided to do something. His expression was worried, and his eyes flicked quickly towards the trio still arguing on the other side of the oval. I knew humans, and I knew that if they were thinking of spilling secrets, it was very rare for them to decide not to. Alarmed, I stood.

By now, the argument had grown loud enough for me to hear clearly.

"Fine!" Shouted the ex-best friend. I could see Layla's confused expression as she turned to face her.

"I'll just tell her like this!"

From the volume of the girl's voice, I knew that if the dancers listened hard enough they'd be able to hear.

I started moving towards them; fully aware from the way my girl's eyes were fixed on me that I couldn't go at any faster than human pace. Already, I knew I wouldn't make it.

"Adam is cheating on you!"

My steps faltered in astonishment. There was no way that I had expected the secret to come out so quickly. Even from what little faith I had in humans, I'd thought they were smarter than that.

Pain flickered through my girl's gentle blue eyes, and I could see that her mind was reeling in shock. No longer caring about who was looking, or what I revealed, I ran.

Layla

I froze. Beside me, Adam was muttering curses at his sister. He wasn't even trying to deny it. It felt like the eyes of the whole world were fixed on me, waiting for my reaction. But I couldn't react. I didn't feel anything. All there was inside me was shock. Confusion. Sadness. And bubbling beneath the surface, like a ball of heat – fury.

"What?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

Suddenly I was aware that Mel was by my side. I didn't know where Adam had gone. I didn't care. Her tone was quieter, more regretful "He's cheating on you."

"With who?"

"Some lady. She has short blonde hair. She drives a black Mazda."

In the back of my mind, I knew that this meant something, but for right now I just wanted the basic facts.

"How long?"

"Since before you were going out."

"_Why_?"

Mel's arm wrapped around my shoulders. "I don't know."

I gasped as I was pulled away from her. Hands grasped my shoulders, forcing me to meet the eyes pf the person who'd grabbed me.

"You don't seriously believe her, do you?" It was Adam.

My lip trembled as the first few tears feel from my eyes. "Why shouldn't I?"

"Because she's lying!" He was speaking quickly, rushing to tell me everything. "She's jealous of us – you know that. She's never been in a serious relationship before. She just wants to put us in the same pain that she's in every time she sees us."

I was confused. "Why would she do that?"

"She doesn't know what it's like to have what we have. She doesn't know what it's like to be in love."

From somewhere nearby, Mel's voice came, "That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard! You know full well that I-" But it faded out as the heat of my fury began to boil again. Because I _knew_ he was lying this time.

"We're not in love." I said, my tone surprisingly calm considering the storm inside. "We never have been in love, and we're not now. We both know that."

"No, Layla, this is it – this is love." He insisted. As if he was so sure that I was wrong.

"No, Adam," I mimicked him, knowing that the anger was about to come out. Getting ready to embrace the heat that was swiftly spreading through my body. "This-" a growl came from deep in my throat, guttural and wild. "-is not love."

And with that, I let the heat overwhelm me.

It sunk deep into my bones, spreading through every part of my body. The pain of it made me cry out as I felt it burn through my veins, mercilessly charring my muscles and flesh. The heat built and built, until it felt as if my body should explode from the pressure inside. With one last, final howl of agony, I embraced that final bit of heat, and felt something shift inside of me, so permanent and deep, that I knew it would never move back.

Suddenly, I was no longer myself. I wasn't even human. I could feel it, in my mind and in my soul. I was a wolf.

* * *

**I know it's not fair to end on that cliff-hanger, but I figure if no one's reading this anymore then it doesn't really matter where I leave it. Prove me wrong by reviewing.**


	9. Crash and Burn

_If you need to fall apart_  
_I can mend a broken heart_  
_If you need to crash then crash and burn_  
_You're not alone  
_-Savage Garden, Crash and Burn

* * *

Layla

The first thing I noticed was the smell. Bitter, cold, sharp and icy. It felt as if it was suffocating me. Retching at the dreadful scent, I sat up, my head spinning wildly as I took in the room around me.

The walls were bare, so I could see the light blue paint on them. Directly opposite me was a tall bookshelf. Only two of the shelves actually had books on them though, the others were filled with a messy jumble of CDs, DVDs, and sheets of paper. Clearly, this was a teenager's room. Near the bookshelf was the door, a slit of light visible around its edge, and a guitar case, balanced on its side.

Frowning, I swung my legs around the edge of the bed, my nose still wrinkled at the smell of the room, and stood. For a moment I swayed on the spot, very close to falling back down, but managed to keep my balance. Slowly, I made my way towards the door, opening it a crack and looking outside.

An unfamiliar hallway was visible, with a couple of doors branching off it. There was no sign of anyone else in the house. As another wave of dizziness shot through my head, I backed away from the door, closing it again quickly. Crouching to the ground, I leant back against the wall, my eyes closed tight and my hands covering my face.

Where in the world was I? And how had I gotten here? The last thing I could remember was the dance. Adam and Mel had been fighting, yelling, and then… nothing. My mind was completely blank, as if the memory had been entirely wiped out.

The creak of a stair nearby made my jump, but as I struggled to get to my feet the door beside me was already opening, bringing a pair of feet and an overwhelmingly foul smell with it.

Gagging, I had no time to see who it was that'd entered the room. My lungs were burning with the pain of the smell, and it was unbelievable that I hadn't already fainted from it.

"Relax, Layla, it's okay. Just breathe." The voice was a male's. Deep, gentle and soothing.

I gasped in a few breaths, trying to ignore the smell. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I registered that I'd heard this voice before, but with my head still spinning it was impossible to place it. I felt the wall against my back as I collapsed against it, overcome by the smell.

"Shhhh," the voice shushed me, trying to calm my erratic breathing. I could feel the speaker bend down beside me. "Breathe," it repeated. "Just breathe."

I focussed half my mind on my breathing, while the other half searched wildly for a memory of this voice. It was like I'd heard it when I was very young, or in dream, or _something_.

Having finally slowed my breathing, I forced my eyes open, my face still twisted at the terrible smell. I saw a pair of bright golden eyes, a few strands of auburn hair flopping casually over one of them. Then I closed my eyes again, blinked very hard, having completely forgotten about the smell, and tried again.

Jason Cullen's face was still hovering mere inches from mine.

Jason

"I'm Jason," I said, internally hitting myself for not thinking of something better to say.

"I know," she said, with an uncertain expression. Partway between a smile and a grimace.

I resisted smiling at that simple fact. "Good. And I know your name, too."

"What is it then?" For a girl who'd just awoken from a having-transformed-into-a-werewolf induced sleep, she was surprisingly quick with her response.

"Layla." I almost jumped in surprise at how nicely it rolled off my tongue. Like I'd been calling her that forever. "Your name is Layla Brooks."

She looked taken aback, shocked even, that I'd known who she was. A smile broke out on my lips – how could I _not_ know who she was?

Slowly, as if unsure, she smiled back, and I could see the tiredness in her gaze as she strained to keep the smile in place.

"Is this your house?" she asked, pushing herself off the wall to kneel as she looked around my room.

My smile faltered as I scanned the room, as well. It was hardly a secret to anyone who looked around that I wasn't a normal teenage boy. The walls were completely bare of posters, my favourite bands having disappeared into obscurity a few years ago. The few books on my shelves looked brand new, and it was easy to tell that I'd never read them.

Embarrassed, I nodded. Layla smiled again in response, twisting her legs back into a sitting position, and drawing her knees up to her chest.

"Do you want to sleep?" I asked, wondering if she'd be able to make it to the bed by herself.

"No," she murmured, her voice muffled by her knees.

"Do you want something to eat?" I tried again, unconvinced that this girl could be completely content in her current state.

She shook her head, her soft eyes glancing up at me for a moment before disappearing back beneath her eyelids.

"Do you want me to leave you alone?" I felt the offer was necessary, even though I had no desire at all to obey it.

This time she looked at me properly, an odd expression on her face as she considered my suggestion. "No," she said finally, and I could detect some indignation in her tone.

"Well, do you want anything at all, or are you fine just sitting there making awkward conversation with me?"

She laughed tightly, as if the effort was almost too much, and kept her eyes up, fixed on mine. "I wouldn't mind a shower," she admitted, blushing slightly.

It was an odd feeling, to see a girl blush and not feel any desire whatsoever to attack her. There was no bloodlust, no thirst; in fact it was all I could to stop myself running in the other direction. Everything about this girl drove my instincts insane, telling me to run as far and fast as I could, or to get ready to stand and fight.

But I couldn't obey those instincts. Just couldn't. Not when the other half of me was begging for me to move closer. To inhale her beautiful scent, to touch her flushed cheeks, to stay right where I was, until the moment when she forced me to leave.

"A shower?" I repeated, leaning away from her automatically, scared of our proximity.

She nodded, her eyes still far too intense as they held mine.

For an immeasurable moment, there was silence between us. I wondered what she was thinking about. Adam, her boyfriend. Mel, her best friend. Nessie, who, she must have realised by now, was a part of the entire debacle. Or me. Was it possible that I was on her mind? Possible that it was me who was causing her eyes to sparkle like they were, a gentle smile to curve her lips?

A knock on the door effectively ruined our moment, and without having to look at who it was I groaned. "I'm taking care of her just fine, Nessie," I said, looking up at her from where I was sitting on the floor.

Layla smiled, her gaze moving up to Nessie, too. "Really, he's taken great care of me. He was just about to point me in the direction of the shower."

Nessie raised her eyebrows, and I could sense that she was plotting something. _Don't do it_, I silently begged, _whatever you've planned, don't do it_!

"We're out of hot water."

I buried my head in my hands so that I wouldn't attack her. Not that I would've had any hope of winning, considering my current state of love-strucked-ness.

"Oh." I wasn't sure if Layla could tell Nessie was lying and was just going along with it, or if she honestly believed my sister's innocent tone. "Um, well, that's okay then…" she trailed off, sounding a little bit lost.

"Nessie," I warned from beneath my hands, hoping to convince the truth out of her before I had to hurt her.

"I'm actually serious, Jay," she said, in a very convincing tone. "Emmett and Dad are looking into it now, but we think the pipe's been cut somewhere."

I frowned and moved my hands. "By who?"

Nessie's expression was dead-set, and I could tell she was serious. "We're more concerned about _what_ it was, than who."

From in front of me, Layla was glancing between Nessie and I, looking worried. I extended a hand towards her automatically, not realising until I'd rested it on her knee that it must feel freezing to her. I felt her move in surprise at my touch, but to my astonishment she didn't pull away. Her eyes wide and scared, she looked at me for an explanation.

I didn't give her one.

"There's a stream a little way into the forest, you can wash there if you really want," I offered jokingly, trying to ease the tension. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Nessie slip back out the door, closing it softly behind her.

Layla looked as if she was going to laugh for a second, but then she shot me a calculating look. "Will it be cold?"

"Not for you." The words were out before I could stop them, and I wondered if she'd ask.

"Even at this time of night?" Her gaze flicked to the dark sky outside my window.

"It's actually morning," I pointed out, trying to keep up with her change of mood.

She shrugged, ignoring this inconsequential comment. "So I _could_ wash myself there if I wanted to, without any known health risks?"

I nodded. She smiled and stood up, surprisingly fluidly considering she'd only woken up a few minutes ago.

Layla

I don't know what made me say I'd do it. But suddenly, there I was, walking out the back door of the Cullen's enormous mansion, heading straight into an unknown forest, with only Jason Cullen for company. Despite myself, I was excited. I'd been dreaming about a moment like this since I'd first laid eyes on the mysterious family, and now he was here, acting very much as if he liked me, and pushing branches out of my way as he led me through the forest.

A cold breeze whistled through the trees, and I instinctively pulled the coat that Jason had leant me tighter around my dress. It was only after I'd done that that I realised I wasn't at all cold. When Jason had first given me the coat, it had felt as cold as ice, but quickly – much too quickly – it had warmed up to my own temperature.

I was distracted when a twig that Jason had forgot to hold back hit me in the face and I stumbled on the uneven ground. Faster than I'd thought possible, Jason was by my side, pulling me back onto my feet. His hands, impossibly cold, held me securely, and I couldn't help feeling safe with him, as if he wouldn't let me get hurt. But something inside me, something instinctual that I couldn't quite identify, told me to fear him.

I shivered as his touch lingered on my wrist, and he quickly let go, taking a few steps backwards before meeting my eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked, sounding uncertain. He always sounded like that, I'd noticed, from my few minutes of conversation with him since I'd awoken. As if his tone was forcedly calm and non-threatening. Like he had something very deep and compelling going through his head, but didn't have the opportunity – or the guts – to say it.

I nodded and mumbled a "yes", not meeting his eyes.

It was all too _big_, I realised – too soon. For what felt like forever, I'd been admiring Jason Cullen from a distance, trying my best to get him out of mind when I was with others, and silently begging for his face to never leave my mind when I was alone. For weeks now, I'd had these intense feelings running through my head, and now, all of sudden, I was here, in the middle of a forest, with only him for company. I was feeling all of this incredible stuff that I'd kept at bay ever since I'd first seen him. But now, it was all so strong and passionate… I could hardly bring myself to notice the rest of the world, and that it must, inevitably, still be spinning around us.

With a slight nod, I started walking again, only having to take a couple of paces before Jason caught on that I was expecting him to keep leading me. He turned away and kept going, his steps slow and careful, his eyes fixed straight ahead. I wondered what he was looking for.

I don't know how long it took for us to reach the stream, but the sky was starting to get lighter, and I knew it wouldn't be long until sunrise. With an awkward gesture towards the water, Jason glanced at me, indicating that this was it. I wondered exactly what 'it' was. What was I mean to do now?

"I have a towel for you," Jason said, producing one from a bundle of material in his hands. "And a change of clothes, if you want them." A shirt and a pair of jeans fell to the ground next to the towel.

I nodded. "Thanks. I didn't really think to bring any spare clothes."

He smiled at my feeble half-joke. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Those are Rosalie's, but hopefully they'll fit you."

From what I remembered of Rosalie, the clothes would be about two inches too long for me, and far too stunning for me to even consider wearing wandering around a forest, but I nodded again anyway.

"I'm going to go for a walk. I'll be back in about ten minutes, and I'll make sure I make a lot of noise so you can hear me coming."

I nodded a third time, feeling blood rush up to my cheeks at the absurdity of the whole situation. "I shouldn't be that long."

Jason shrugged. "I'll give you ten minutes anyway. Just call out if you need me, I shouldn't be going out of earshot."

I tried to work out how he'd move out of eyeshot but not earshot, then decided that it was far too early to be doing any hard thinking, as my head started spinning again and I swayed slightly on the spot. Too quickly, Jason was beside me, steadying me, his hands lingering on my waist. I was tempted to pretend to fall again, if it meant he'd hold me closer. Instead, I gave a small smile, a murmured "thanks", and a measured step back, away from him and his sharp scent.

Almost too fast for me to see, an array of emotions shot across his face – pain, understanding, disappointment – it was hard to pick them all. Then, just as fast, his expression was blank, and he turned and hurried out of the clearing.

I waited until the sound of his footsteps had died away, before making my way over to the stream. In this place, it was about three metres across, and looked at least a metre deep. Glancing both ways, I could see that this was a natural pool, where the water, usually cascading swiftly over rocks, slowed to spread over a larger space. It was the only place as far as I could see where I'd be able to bathe properly.

I sighed, wondering what exactly, had made me end up in this position. How on earth had I gone from a school dance with my boyfriend, to having a bath in the middle of a strange forest with Jason Cullen knowing exactly where I was and what I was doing? The strangest part was that I wasn't worried about Jason at all. The thought didn't even cross my mind that he might come back a second before my ten minutes had passed. No, my biggest worry was about that blank period in my mind – the time between the dance and waking up. What had happened? And why didn't I remember?

Repressing the urge to stamp in frustration at the sluggishness of my mind, I turned away from the stream, walking back to the towel and clothes Jason had left for me. Glancing around, more out of habit than suspicion, I assured myself that I was, in fact, alone, before carefully pulling off my dress. Without the thick layers of pink material protecting me from the morning air, I wasn't surprised when a cool breeze made me shudder. I was surprised when I realised it was the smell, not the feel of the breeze that gave me goosebumps, though. It was the same scent as in the Cullen's house – sharp, icy and burning. Shivering, I quickly finished undressing and, grabbing the towel (which smelt mercifully powerfully of detergent and some sort of perfume), hurried over to the stream, dropping the towel beside it and slipping in before I had a chance to talk myself out of it.

Jason

As soon as I heard her turn away, I ran. I ran and ran and ran and kept on running until I couldn't detect any traces of the werewolf smell that radiated from every pore of her body. The deliciously vile smell that drew me in as much as it repelled me.

"She really doesn't smell nice, does she?"

I jumped in surprise (a rare thing to see a vampire do) at Edward's voice.

"I wouldn't have expected the scent to be so strong after only having shifted once, but I guess it could be stronger at the beginning. Jacob doesn't smell nearly as bad anymore. A fact for which I am very grateful."

I stayed silent, not sure what to say. It was an awkward situation, to say the least. Layla, the girl I'd been obsessing over ever since I'd first seen her, was here. I'd been so close to her that I could see the beautiful brown of her skin, a colour that radiated from her firey, werewolf core, seeping out and making her brighter still. I'd touched her, spoken to her, made her laugh – it was too much, too fast. How could everything have changed to drastically in so little time?

A hiss from Edward made me look at him. "It hasn't changed Jason, not yet. She still has a boyfriend. And a family. She's still a werewolf."

Did it matter? The boyfriend, the family, the blood? Did any of it really matter anymore? I was with her, and I loved her, more and more with every moment I spent with her. So, what was stopping me from keeping her? What was stopping me from having her all to myself?

"You're still human. Even if you wanted to, you wouldn't be able to keep her here. Not now, at least. Your werewolf needs to go home. She needs to think, to sort things out."

It was difficult not being the one with the infallible insight into people's minds.

"She's confused. She still doesn't know what happened to her at the dance, and I'm not sure that we're the best people to explain it to her."

I looked up to meet his eyes, frowning. "Why not?"

"Because she doesn't trust us. She can smell that we're different. She can feel it, too. Your werewolf isn't stupid, she knows that there's something strange about us. She doesn't trust us. Not even you."

His words hurt me. Stabbed at me like a knife. How could she not trust me? Whether or not she knew it, I'd saved her and her friends' lives by catching her at the dance. I'd kept her sane, alive even, by bringing her here. To safety. Or, at least, relative safety. At least here she couldn't hurt anyone. Wasn't that a good thing?

"So, what do I do now?"

Edward sighed, glancing back in the direction of the stream where I'd left Layla.

"Alice says you've disappeared for at least another few hours, so she'll be safe until you leave her. You have to take her home, let her family explain what happened."

"What if her family doesn't know?"

"They know. They must know. There's werewolf blood somewhere in her past, and it's not something that's easily forgotten in family legends."

I still wasn't convinced. How could sending her home – sending her away from me – be the right thing to do?

"She needs time to get to used to what she is," Edward said, interrupting my thoughts. "It's the same as it was with you. She won't be able to control it for a while – the transformations, that is. Until she can, it's wise for us to stay away, especially when you'll be putting other people in danger."

I nodded, uneasy. "But we're going to have to see her, right? At school."

Edward raised his eyebrows at me. "How many times have you finished school?"

"A few."

"And you're complaining about a suggestion that we get a month or so off?"

Bloody reverse psychology. How could he make a month without seeing Layla sound so good? Edward just smiled smugly. I often wondered how Bella could possibly put up with someone like him. His smile just widened, and he turned around to go.

"If you shift into an ant and start heading back to the stream, you'll get there at about the time she's ready for some company again," Edward suggested, chuckling lightly as he jogged away.

I glared at his back until it disappeared from sight. What was I supposed to do until Layla had finished her wash? Just for fun, I shifted into an eagle, and launched myself up into the sky. The thrilling feeling of wind on my wings numbed me for a second to the rush of time around me, until I realised that I could clearly see the house from where I was, meaning that Layla would also be in plain sight. I quickly dived back into the trees, again. Note to self: do not shift into animals with good eyesight when you are trying not to see the love of your existence, who just happens to be washing herself in a nearby stream.

Back in human form, I sat on the ground, half-wishing I could feel the coolness of the frost that crackled beneath me, just because it'd give me something to think about. Something other than Layla to think about.

An ant walked past my left knee, navigating its way over twigs and around clumps of dirt. Hoping Edward was far away enough not to be able to see or hear me or my thoughts, I closed my eyes, and felt myself shrinking. As an ant, I quickly caught up with the real one I'd been watching earlier. It gave me a feeling of immense satisfaction to push aside a small rock for it, allowing it continue on its way back to its nest. It made me feel vastly pathetic when I realised how satisfied I'd felt.

Silently praying that Edward's maths abilities were as good as everyone knew they were, I began my way – scurrying at full ant speed – back in the direction of Layla. In my mind, I counted down the nanoseconds until I'd get there.

Layla

I'd been sitting on the edge of the steam, buttoned up in the foul-scented shirt Jason had left for me, for about two minutes when the sound of muted footsteps made me look up. I stood up quickly, feeling refreshed after my bath, and scanned the little clearing, searching for the source of the noise.

"Are you decent?"

I smiled as Jason came out of the trees, walking backwards with one hand covering his eyes.

For a brief moment, I considered saying "no", just to see his reaction, but decided against it. Sure, I'd slept in his room and bathed in a stream near his house, but we weren't exactly friends enough for me to be making naked jokes.

"Yes, you can look."

Smoothly, he turned around and moved his hand away from his face, looking at me. For an awkward second his eyes lingered on me in a way that made me blush, but a second later his gaze had shifted to somewhere behind my left shoulder. Despite what my Mum had always said about it being rude for people not to meet your eyes, I greatly appreciated him looking away. I hoped it meant that he knew he was in no circumstances ever to remind me of this event ever again.

Jason coughed, breaking the silence, and said, "So, are you ready to go home?"

"Um, yeah, I guess."

"Good. Your mum must be worried."

"Probably. Actually, Kari's probably more worried than Mum is about me. I should've called."

Jason put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a phone, moving closer to offer it to me. "Here, call now. Tell your family you'll be home soon."

I flipped the phone open and dialled the number, glancing up at the forest around us before pressing 'call'. The signal took a moment to connect, but then it was dialling and suddenly my little sister's voice was shouting, "If you have my sister I'm going to find you and take her back and you'll be very sorry that you kidnapped her because she has a LITTLE sister who misses her a lot and who knows how to do karate and tae kwon do and... origami!"

Jason ducked his head to hide his laughter, stepping around me to go and pick up the pile of clothes and towel that I'd left by the stream.

"She just loves me a lot," I felt the need to explain to him, before saying into the phone, "Kari, it's okay, I'm here. You don't need to do any origami on anyone."

"LAYLA!"

I may or may not have been deafened by her voice. I was suspecting that I had been, until she spoke again, mercifully being a bit more quiet.

"Layla! I can't believe it's you! Do you know how worried Mum and I have been? Mel got home last night and she was crying and talking about a fight and that Cullen family and that boy, Jason, and how you were screaming and then he dragged you away from her and she couldn't follow you. And Adam! I can't believe what he did to you – that was so mean, he's such a jerk! I knew you shouldn't have been going out with him again, that was silly of you Layla, but I wasn't going to tell you that, because I just so worried!"

I laughed at her rushed words, making no effort whatsoever to follow what she was saying.

"I'm fine, Kari, don't worry about me. I'm just... at a friend's place. But don't worry about me, I'll be home soon."

"How soon?" she asked suspiciously.

I looked over at Jason, intending to ask him, but without having to be told what the question was, he answered, "Half an hour."

I nodded, and repeated that to Kari.

"Okay, I'll start the timer now."

"And please tell Mum I'm fine," I reminded her. "I don't want her to worry."

"I will. She's been at Mel's place all morning, asking about what happened. I only got to hear the story once – Mum made me go away so Mel could tell it to her again properly. I don't know why."

I frowned at that comment. What was the 'proper' story, and why was it so important for Mum to hear it, but not for Kari? Was Mum so out of touch that she thought Kari wouldn't be as worried, if not more worried about me than she was?

Filing that information away in my mind to examine later, I said good bye to Kari, promised to be home soon, and hung up.

Silently, Jason came back to me to take the phone.

"Is everything all right?" he asked.

I was still frowning, not at all sure that everything was all right, and wondering if Jason Cullen was the right person to question for details.

"My Mum's worried about me," I told him, conscious that I wasn't answering his question. "Kari said Mum's talking to Mel, asking about what happened last night."

I watched Jason carefully for a reaction to my words, but his expression didn't change from politely concern.

"She probably wants to make sure that you weren't hurt or anything."

I considered letting it drop. Just agreeing with him, letting go of my questions and suspicions about what exactly had happened between Adam and Mel fighting and my waking up in his room this morning. But I didn't want to let it go. I wanted to know what had happened. It was my life, right? I deserved to be given back those few hours of it that, somehow, my memory hadn't registered.

"We should go," Jason suggested, starting to walk away.

I reached out and grabbed his arm, wanting him to stop. His skin was icy against mine, but I was expecting it this time so I ignored it, pulling him back to look at me. He seemed startled by the contact and let himself be turned around, even though I was almost positive he could've pulled away if he'd wanted.

"Jason," I began, "What happened last night, at the dance? What happened to me?" He opened his mouth to say something but I spoke again before he could get any words out. "And don't say nothing, because it wasn't nothing. I have this big blank period in my mind and I don't know what's supposed to be there. It's like someone's taken the memory out of my head, and I want it back! I want to know what I did."

Even as I spoke, he was shaking his head. "I can't tell you, Layla. It's not my... right. I don't know enough about you or your family to explain it properly anyway. That's why I'll take you home to your mother. She'll be able to explain it much better than I will."

"How will she know what happened? She wasn't even there! And what does my family have to do with last night, anyway?"

Jason kept shaking his head, his gaze averted from mine, as if he couldn't bear to see the confusion and frustration in my eyes.

"I can't tell you," he repeated, his tone insistent. "Please don't ask me to."

His last words confused me enough to stop me saying anything more on the subject. Instead, they made me curious about him.

"Why can't I ask you to tell me?"

He sighed, smiling slightly at me having stopped asking last night, but not seeming to like this question any more than the last ones. Looking up to meet my eyes, his expression was calculating, deciding how much I needed to hear.

"I find it difficult to say no to you," he said slowly, thinking each word over before he said it.

"Why?"

He smiled wider and, to my disappointment, looked away.

"Do you always ask so many questions?"

"Yes," I answered quickly.

He looked back, virtually grinning now.

"Then why don't you ask them to your mother, not me, and we can both be happy?"

Not giving me a chance to agree or disagree with his offer, he began walking away quickly, setting a pace that meant I had to jog to keep up with him.

As we hurried back to the house, he stayed a few steps in front of me, making it impossible for me to stop or slow down and ask him more questions. Despite the pace, I found I wasn't getting tired, and by the time we'd gone back inside, straight through the house and out the front door, barely two minutes had passed.

Jason stopped next to a silver car idling on the driveway. Inside, I could see three of Jason's siblings, the red-haired girl and one of the brown-haired boys were in the front seats, with Nessie in the back, smiling up at me.

"Edward, Bella and Nessie will take you home," Jason explained.

I resisted asking why he couldn't take me, and moved towards the car, opening the door and trying not to wince at the icy smell that burst out of it. Why did all of this family's stuff reek so badly? Subtly taking in a deep breath of the nice, outside air, I ducked into the car, letting my gaze flick up to Jason for a moment before I closed the door. I heard the trunk open as Jason put my dress and shoes in there, and then kit banged shut again, and before I could think of saying goodbye, we were speeding off, Jason and his house fading away into the distance.


End file.
